SO FAR we have yet to hear news reports on proposed ordinances introduced in the Davao City Council that has significant impact on the population, such as those that will deter further degradation of the city’s environment, or those that will enhance further the economic well-being of the city’s population. We also haven’t heard of the City’s Executive Department pushing for any such local ordinances.
Given this dearth of ideas we could only assume that each councilor does not have any staff assigned to conduct studies on what is happening in the city in relation to environment, urbanization of the outskirts, or the development aggression in the highlands.
For example what is the Council’s take on the wanton destruction of the once vast farmlands planted to coconut or cacao, or rubber now being sold by its former owners and converted into residential subdivisions?
In Barangay Ula, a large coconut farm with an area of more than 30 hectares is now rendered bare with all the trees cut to give way to its development as residential enclave. The developer is a real estate firm owned by a well-known political and business family.
The same conglomerate is still continuously acquiring lands for future projects. Again what is the take of the Council on this supposed development for one sector but a major afront on another, specifically on the environment?
Yes, the city government has been proudly talking of projects that will address the problem of frequent flooding in some lowland portions of the city center and its peripheries. But at the same time the Council seems unmindful of the wanton destruction of the city’s contours because these are coming as business initiatives that will help the city’s coffers always oozing with money.
We hope the councilors will make use of any of their staff members to do serious research so they can introduce ideas to their bosses for consideration in crafting ordinances that matter most.
Or, are the local legislators only hiring their staff as office receptionists, liaisons, drivers or for making coffee for the councilor and his visitors?
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President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed late last week a law that prohibits schools from denying their students to take the examination if he or she fails to pay the monthly tuition and other school fees. Indeed, the Marcos administration is doing its best to appear pro-people. Imagine how many students coming from disadvantaged families will be benefited with the new law!
We can only hope that law banning the “No Permit, no exams” policy of schools will not suffer the same fate as the statute stopping the “No deposit, no admission” of patients in hospitals all over the country. The said law that was made effective some years back is more violated than followed.
Some patients or their relatives had complained not just once but for several instances when they sought medical intervention with hospital admission. But as usual, patients are required an amount as advance deposit. We were one among those patients when we had our operation late last year.
Can the Marcos, Jr. Administration set it apart from the previous ones and be able to have the schools follow the mandate of the law? We wish the administration all the luck.
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