Finally, we've got police and CITOM visibility!

Have you been seeing uniformed policemen in almost every street that you pass by? Honestly, I thought that it was just my imagination until some friends of mine told me that they too have noticed these policemen in almost every major street in Cebu City. I also noticed the presence of CITOM enforcers also in our major streets. In fact, I had to flag down a CITOM enforcer yesterday morning near JY Square because of a vehicle that was illegally parked facing onwards traffic. Then he told me that he was walking towards that vehicle to apprehend it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we wrote an article saying that government didn't have a presence on our streets. Now if we are seeing a lot of PNP or CITOM officers on our streets as a result of that article, let me congratulate Mayor Michael Rama and Cebu City Police Director Supt. Noli Romana because the presence of cops in our streets would certainly make habitual violators realize that they just can't violate our laws anymore with impunity, especially our traffic laws. As for the presence of PNP officers, they too are a deterrent to possible crimes that might have happened if those officers were no visible or present in our streets.

Now if we could only extend that visibility (especially with CITOM enforcers) into the night, they just might possibly apprehend those pesky jeepney drivers who drive their vehicles with their lights turned off. As I already wrote, it is time for Cebuanos to join our effort to rid Cebu City of those various traffic violators, especially jeepney drivers whose driving habits endanger other motorists.

Have you driven behind a tractor truck with a container headed for the Port of Cebu? I'm sure you must have… and chances are, you must have noticed that many of these container trucks are not well-lighted or worse, they have their back up lights on all the time, you'd have a hard time overtaking them on either side of the road. Well, the solution to that is simple. CITOM or LTO officials should assign permanent traffic enforcers at the Port of Cebu (surely, they should get the cooperation of Cebu Port Authority officials) because all of these container trucks have to go to the port to load or unload their cargo.

This was one practice that I did during my time as chairman of CITOM, but somehow it was stopped. May I suggest to CITOM Chairman Ruben Almendras and the CITOM Board to make this official because it is the only way that we can apprehend with certainty those dangerous containers that have faulty brakes, no side warning lights or headlights. This is a proactive move that we expect our city government to do and if they do this, believe me… their constituents will certainly appreciate it.

Meanwhile, I read that the PNP is hiring 7,400 civilian employees to be deployed on the streets for visibility purposes. That number was supposed to be 15,000 but the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) cut it down to half, which only tells you that the DBM does not understand that our people need police visibility in these times, whether they are living in urban centers or in the towns and provinces. I just hope that the police visibility happening in Cebu City today is not merely for Sinulog purposes. In my book, this should be daily fare for the PNP and CITOM because we need it!

With the presence of our PNP officers and traffic enforcers in our streets, each and every single personnel must always be on the watch (meaning, they should not be talking to each other or texting their friends) for potential trouble makers or criminals. PNP officers must also help traffic enforcers, even on just one traffic violation… illegal parking. When PNP officers stop or prevent motorists from stopping on streets which have a No Parking sign… then finally, we will see some kind of discipline in our streets. 

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While I commiserate with Councilor Margot Osmeña that her pet project, the Parian Drop-in Center, is having financial trouble thanks to the Supreme Court's ruling that made the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) a.k.a. Pork Barrel unconstitutional, it is also happening to many non-government organizations (NGO) all over the country. Call them "collateral damage" to the larger damage to the nation, where the political elite were feasting on the Pork Barrel for 27 years, until the Filipino people got fed up with this practice that the bulk of the money has been stuffed in the pockets of politicians.

But while the Parian Drop-in Center got a share of the PDAF of senators, I noticed that the name of Sen. Serge Osmeña, the brother of former Mayor Tomas Osmeña, wasn't even on that list? Aside from Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Kiko Pangilinan and Chiz Escudero and of course Rep. Raul del Mar. That in my book is a very short list! What about the others?

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