Pastor Quiboloy breaks statement — news? Endorses Imee — news.
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Wow! It’s been eight years since the so-called Bike Lane Ordinance was passed by the Davao City Council, which without doubt had been signed by the city mayor at that time. Yet, it appears that this has not been implemented. The local legislation authored by the late councilor Leonardo Avila III was passed in 2010. It gives exclusive rights to two wheel motorists such as motorcycles and bicycles the use of a designated lane on certain city roads. The ordinance also penalizes any four-wheel vehicles, including trucks encroaching on these lanes.
How come? We can only think of the following assumptions:
That the people charged with managing the city’s traffic are convinced that allocating bike lanes is not yet a priority in Davao City until today;
That like several other important city ordinances the Bike Lane Law has remained without Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) until now.
On the first assumption there is clear indication that the executive department of the local government may have believed that the city’s traffic situation still does not need exclusive lanes for two-wheel vehicles. This belief is manifested by no less than the chief of the City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) Retired Police Col. Dionisio Abude. According to Abude implementing the Avila Ordinance “is not yet feasible.”
On the other hand, our second assumption is clearly confirmed by no less than veteran councilor from the city’s second district Diosdado Mahipus.
Councilor Dado admitted that the Bike Lane Ordinance was not implemented due to its lack of IRR. Mahipus even went to the extent of saying that there are already existing bike lanes. Only, the bike riders are hesitant to use these two-wheeled vehicle passage.
Going back to Abude’s claim, the CTTMO chief said that the width of the city’s main roads is not capable of accommodating additional lane to be exclusively used by bikers. We agree with him if the only consideration is the number of vehicles using the city’s roads. More so if we also include as factor the discipline level of drivers and passengers.
However, such argument by the CTTMO chief appears to be defeatist. If his idea is to be followed chances are, the city will never be able to implement that Bike Lane Ordinance. After all, the likelihood of expanding existing roads leading to the city’s urban center is close to nil. What with the magnitude of the expenses to be incurred to do away with the occupants of both sides of city roads.
Meanwhile, the admission of Councilor Mahipus that the Avila Law still needs IRR indicates that the city government is not really serious in giving teeth to the law. Imagine, eight years have already passed and the death of its author never seemed to have goaded the concerned unit of the local government, specifically the City Council, to craft the most important component of the ordinance — its IRR!
Yes, minus this very important requisite for the full and religious implementation of any law — the IRR — any approved legislation, national or local, is like a non-law at all. It is a law in paper only.
In Davao City, how many such ordinances approved by the council in the past and signed by the City Mayor have suffered the same fate as the Bike Lane Ordinance?
How we wish the city’s Executive and Legislative Departments could sit down and take stock of the ordinances long existing without IRR and create a special group to develop the necessary rules and regulations to implement the same.
We believe that this is the only way that justice can be done on the ordinances concerned and given to the councilors who labored religiously to craft those local legislations.
