BY VIC N. SUMALINOG
Top story in Davao City’s local newspapers: “GrabCar in Davao City.”
Yes, the leading ride-hailing company in the country is now in the city fielding in the roads some 200 units “to help ease peak hours transport burdens.”
Now we should not be surprised if local taxi drivers are not anymore bothered looking for the meaning of the word grab in the dictionary. Sooner they will understand what the word means to them.
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Another “chilling” news item: “Habitual mendicants will be held accountable.”
That is according to the spokesperson of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO). We are just wondering why the habitual beggars are the ones who should be held accountable for their action just to be able to survive the vagaries of living. Why not the police first look into why the mendicants’ number is growing despite the clear prohibitions of Presidential Decree 1563 or the Anti-Mendicancy Law?
We believe that the authorities should first look into claims that there are syndicates controlling the mendicants’ every move and assignment and are the ones collecting the money that the beggars are able to generate.
And if from among the many mendicants in the city there are legitimate ones who really have to beg for money just to be able to live, why are the authorities obsessed in immediately adopting the police option to address what clearly is a social problem?
Why cannot the police request for some kind of a multi-sectoral coordinating body to be established by the local government to craft a sustainable plan to do away with mendicants so the city streets will be rid of what many consider as “eyesores?”
We do not know if any of our honorable councilors, more specifically the chair of the City Council’s Committee on Social Service – if there is any – has ever thought of coming up with a local legislation that will complement the national one for its effective implementation?
We understand that every councilor is given some items to fill so he/she could have a staff in the office. Why not tap some of them serve as research officers with add-on functions to develop draft ordinances for the Sanggunian member to sponsor in the plenary?
We guess it is only fair that the councilor’s staff be given work the output of which is relevant to the functions of the members of the local legislative body. They should be made to deviate from the usual errand men and women, “coffee maker”, or representatives of the councilors in functions held in far-flung areas of their districts.
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Once again we had the opportunity to have coffee with some friends in a simple coffee shop middle of last week. It was not really a pre-arranged gathering but merely accidental that we met in the Café nook. Since we had an hour and a half window waiting for the wife to complete her grocery job at the Santa Ana Multi-purpose Buying Club outlet we felt comfortable conversing with our friends that we seldom met during the last three years because of the pandemic.
Our conversation initially dwelt on the seeming “souring” of relations between Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara and her father former President Rodrigo Duterte on one hand, and some other persons close to the VP’s tandem President Bongbong Marcos Jr. specifically House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of the President, on the other.
But one of our friends, an avid political and social observer, waylaid the conversation into one unexpected subject – the now lonely journey of Pura Luka Vega who, for some time now, had been in agony because of his antagonism with the religious sector due to his perceived sacrilegious ways of presenting his art or portraying himself as a person.
The guy is now declared “persona non grata” in several places that he has gone to, our friend told our group. He requested us not to identify him, and we obliged. He said that Pura Luka is being condemned by many religious organizations, the Catholic Church one of them, political leaders and social organizations because of his (Pura Luka’s) alleged disrespect to God and the images that symbolize Him.
But according to this friend of ours, except for a few religious denomination leaders who are also known allies of political personalities in the Opposition, hardly were there who came out to censure ex- President Duterte for what he termed as the former Philippine leader’s “mockery of things sacred, especially the Holy Eucharist.”
He then asked us “where were they during those times? Or, were those religious, lay leaders and political personalities in the Opposition selective of their braveries?”
