We wrote about the cleanup proposal being done by Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO) head Ma. Nida Cabrera to clean up the Bulacao River, the Guadalupe River, and the Lahug River with volunteers to do this job, which has also triggered the support of Mayor Tomas Osmeña who sought for volunteers in his Facebook page. But The FREEMAN editorial last Monday correctly mentioned the length Mayor Osmeña has been in office and he never thought of cleaning up any of our rivers. As promised, I will write what I offered back then as a solution to our rivers being turned into a garbage dump.
A decade ago, I had a masterplan to clean up the Guadalupe River by getting then congressman Tony Cuenco of the South District to fund his territorial side and Congressman Raul del Mar to fund his territorial side with two fences along the five-meter easement. The two fences means, no one can throw their garbage anymore into the Guadalupe River. Indeed, I was referring to the start of the Guadalupe River kilometers upstream from the Guadalupe Church and ending at the mouth of the river downtown.
Unfortunately, when I presented this plan to then Mayor Osmeña, he didn’t say no, but told me I must seek funding for this project. In short, I took it as his saying he wasn’t going to work for this project and wanted me to do the work myself. As if being CITOM chairman wasn’t too much work for me.
If that project had materialized, Cebu City would have a dedicated bicycle lane on both sides of the Guadalupe River, so that bikers could also help monitor if garbage was still being thrown into the river. With no support from the Office of the Mayor, I dropped this plan for another time. So now it is up to Nida Cabrera to find ways to clean up the river. But let me say this clearly that if they do not erect a barrier on both sides of the river, people will continue throwing garbage into it. This is the only way!
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One advocacy I fully support is the restoration of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) as a mandatory subject in our educational system. I recently read a report that SHS students from Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle, UST, FEU and PUP came together to reject the reinstating of mandatory ROTC. This is the very reason why ROTC has to be mandatory, because the youth of today are no longer as patriotic like the students of our time.
The students reasoned ROTC was abolished because of the students' objection to the abuses and corruption being proliferated by the program. There are still many unresolved cases of physical, psychological, and sexual harassment, and ROTC being mandated again in Senior High Schools is tantamount to forcing these violations to be forgotten.
The death of Mark Welson Chua, a cadet in the University of Santo Tomas, sparked controversy and later led to the abolishment of the program. Chua exposed the program department’s widespread corruption, extortion, and even hazing. Days after, his body was found dumped in the Pasig River.
The Duterte administration says that the program would "instill discipline and patriotism among the youth." But the students say that the Duterte administration only wants “blind” obedience from the students. This thinking clearly tells me that many of these student organizations opposed to ROTC have been duped or tricked by leftist organizations who are also very much against the ROTC because it brings out well-trained soldiers in far-flung areas where there is no police or military presence. More often than not, ROTC student get to fight back New People’s Army terrorists. This is why leftist organizations are against restoring ROTC.
Mind you, most of the untimely deaths of ROTC cadets are due to hazing activities by ROTC fraternities, but at the end of the day, even if ROTC is no longer mandatory, fraternities or similar organizations continue their recruitment through hazing and this still led to the deaths of students. Remember the fatal hazing of Horacio “Atio” Castillo III who was found dead in a morgue in Manila on September 2017 after attending the initiation rites of Aegis Juris, a Law school fraternity? So let’s bring back ROTC next school year!