Another “urging resolution”!

Decades ago, the Volkswagen Beetle was the car model that was most seen in our roadways. It earned then the full weight and meaning of the word “ubiquitous”. Young professionals and older businessmen and people of all ages, drove it. In 1974, the Volkswagen advertisement “Differrent Volks for different folks” parodied the proverb “different strokes for different folks”.

There is a present perception that the “Bao” has lost its dominance. Sad. Only few people are seen driving it, today. Its rarity tends to add a special meaning to the present day Beetle user as a “different folk”. Since I still feel comfortable using my 1970 Volkswagen in my daily activity, I may also be considered as a “different folk”.

Arnold Opone, my trusted Beetle mechanic of more than three decades, also calls me a “different folk” although most of the time he always adds “in some ways”, as a qualifier. Well, I admit that I was a “different folk” when still a member of the City Council, compared to some of our councilors. Why? I did not author the kind of resolutions the way present members of the City Council are fond of. When I visited my daughter Charisse at her SP Secretariat office the other day, I saw a huge pile of documents. After she gave her permission for me to browse over some of the papers, I felt aghast finding approved “urging resolutions” constituting the biggest bulk of the documents on her table.

To give you an idea of such a measure that I call “urging resolution”, there is this paper with a resolving clause that reads: “RESOLVED to urge the Cebu City Police Office to monitor the crime rates, apprehend the people responsible for these crimes, file the appropriate charges and restore public order, safety and peace in Cebu City.”

At first glance, this resolution is important for it expresses the deep concern of the sponsoring sanggunian member of the peace and order condition of our city. Bravo, if we were to interpret the thought process of the councilor as subsumed in this particular resolving clause, he has seen the general deterioration of the city’s peace and order. His corresponding action is to rouse our police forces from apparent lethargy and to move their butt, so to speak.

As a different folk, I could not write such a resolution. The internet says that “an urge is a pressing want, one that is almost a compulsion”. Using the word “urge” may sound respectful but in the context that the resolution is written, it carries a degree of authority, as if a superior barking orders at a subordinate. When I was in the council never, in my mind, did I ever entertain such a notion of superiority. I was not in the position to compel anyone to do my bidding.

It can be surmised from the language of this urging resolution that its author pre-supposed that the party urged to do something (the police in this case) did not do its job. In the mind of the councilor, the police is remiss in its work of keeping our peace. That is why, the police has to be spanked and the spanking is in the form of this urging resolution.

This spanking however is inutile. A resolution is an expression of a sentiment. It carries no force. It has no coercive power. Because this resolution assumes that the police is not doing its job, it only serves to embarrass the police but never compel it to “monitor the crime rates etc.” It is better for the councilor to author an ordinance detailing how peace and order can be achieved for the police to implement. If such ordinance is passed, the urging resolution is totally unnecessary.