Filipinos will follow

DAVAO CITY — Unless someone mentions it, you won’t really notice. I thought that I was simply enjoying a laid back day in a laid back place even after several short trips around the city. Then my host casually mentioned that he had to watch his speed and make sure that he did not drive faster than 30 kilometers per hour to avoid being arrested. Until he mentioned the speed limit I really did not notice because the speed had an unexplainable calming effect. It was as if I was travelling without the “rushed feeling.”

If this were an opinion poll or subject to discussion, I’m certain that people in Metro Manila would raise a howl if the MMDA imposed a 30kph speed limit in the city center. But here in Davao City where political will and public safety is the primary interest, they are not concerned with public opinion they simply make sure you know the law and that you obey the law. They have speed guns, the cops or traffic enforcers move around to make their location unpredictable, the fine starts at P1,000 and goes up with additional charges for every 10 or so kilometers above the speed limit. This reminds me of what a Singaporean official once said: “It’s not our job to explain policy, it’s our job to implement it.”

According to the locals I spent time with, five out of seven people in their office have been clocked and fined for up to P5,000. Yet, people follow the law and are usually arrested only because they are from out of town or have been driving through nearby provinces where the speed limits are higher or non-existent on the highways. Even the former Mayor Sarah Duterte has reportedly been caught and fined and her father the Mayor did not lift a finger to interfere. His curt reply allegedly was: “She’s a lawyer, she knows the law.” This adherence to the law, determined display of political will, and responsiveness to day-to-day concerns of the people of Davao, collectively inspires people here to follow the law.

Beginning from the old Clark Air Force Base, to the Subic Naval Base, down here to Davao, there is more than enough proof that Filipinos will follow the law if it is implemented with justice, integrity and political will. Otherwise you can complain before the Pope but that won’t get you anywhere.

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Before leaving Metro Manila I read about the brewing fight or conflict between the Alabangers and officials of La Salle Zobel, which is inside the exclusive village. It seems that residents and officials are fed up with the traffic being generated by students/vehicles going in and out of the La Salle area so much so that residents and officials of the exclusive Ayala Alabang village have decided to impose their own “color coding scheme” that effectively cuts entry privileges of vehicles going to La Salle Zobel to 50% or less. The idea is to force the student and school to use more school buses and car pool.

This sad state of affairs is nothing new. Many private villages start out by allowing, even inviting schools to set up inside villages as an added premium or comfort for their community and residents. But once most of the kids grow up and the school has served its purpose, what once was a premium begins to turn into an irritant and obstruction. The schools on the other hand never come to terms with the fact that they will ultimately outgrow their usefulness to the community as well as outgrow the ideal “footprint or area” they originally created. It never occurs to them to have an exit plan in place. The schools carry on with some false sense of entitlement believing that the community owes them a debt of gratitude and that educational institutions deserve better treatment. But why should they? Parents paid every centavo and the communities gave them two generations worth of business if not more. So just like other schools and villages before them the Alabangers and La Salle Zobel officials are at each other’s throat.

Unfortunately, there are many other places outside the boundaries of Metro Manila where established schools, colleges and universities would have all the space, lots of potential students and would be welcomed by families who have started to move out of Metro Manila. Places like Sta. Rosa, Calamba in Laguna and even more in the nearby towns of Batangas have growing communities. But the government and private educational institutions persist on building inside villages, highways, as well as the fault line! In one case, officials of Quezon City may find themselves at the unpleasant receiving end of corruption charges before the office of the Ombudsman for giving clearances and permits to the Multiple Intelligence International School to construct a school in what has already been declared a No-Build Zone through a city ordinance.

The problem will continue to repeat itself as Metro Manila reaches the choke point and people fight over traffic and congestion. What seriously needs to be done is to legislate and incentivize the transfer of educational institutions outside Metro Manila based on a relocation plan that includes the setting up of dedicated modes of transport or a train line, housing and medical facilities for those new “Cities of Education.” The amount of business, the population of students and the economy this create will certainly justify creating such a plan and program. It is an idea whose time has come.

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There are claims that there’s a $5 million bounty on the head of the Malaysian terrorist neutralized and documented by the SAF before 44 of their members were slaughtered by the MILF and the BIFF. If that is so, then we should all push to make sure that the entire amount is publicly subdivided among all the beneficiaries and dependents of the 44 fallen members of the Special Action Force.

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