The one issue that we have been taking up in this column many, many times already but still not acted upon by the proper agencies of the local government of Davao City is the non-distribution of the garbage bins delivered to recipient rural barangays since three years ago.
For months now since the easing of restrictions on movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we visited the barangays where we have seen the garbage bins delivered apparently by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) to check whether these receptacles are still in the locations these were piled like in a secluded corner of the barangay covered courts, at the back of the barangay halls or on one end of the buildings housing the rural health units.
We are not mistaken. The garbage bins are still piled up with the pile mounds competing in height with tall grass varieties. And by all indications including the rather ambivalent statements of officials of recipient barangays, it is unlikely that these bins will be distributed to areas where these are supposed to be located for the convenience of both the garbage-throwing public and the people contracted by the local government to collect the trash.
But based on the justifications made by the CENRO people to barangay officials who endeavored to inquire on the reason/s why the bins are still piled in their lonesome a good three years since these were delivered by the local government, it looks like the garbage receptacles’ distribution will not happen within the first twelve months of Mayor Baste Duterte’s administration. Many are even afraid that the bins’ remaining piled like these are the garbage instead of the refuse’s depositories, which may even outlast Mayor Baste’s 3-year term.
We suspect though, that because of the many responsibilities that the mayor has to attend to he may not be personally aware of this failure of his people at CENRO. Or there is the possibility that the issue is intentionally kept out of the young mayor’s knowledge, so the ineptitude of those who are tasked with distributing the garbage bins will not be exposed.
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In Zamboanga City, there is a snowballing move to have the local government relax the implementation of a national law mandating motorcycle riders to wear helmets. This started after several killings were perpetrated in that Western Mindanao city by motorcycle-riding-helmet-wearing gunmen. And like what is happening in the whole of the country, the police could hardly establish the identity/ies of the suspects even if their criminal acts were captured by closed-circuit television cameras.
So far we have yet to hear the official reaction of the local government officials to the suggestion. But we will personally support the such move if it is replicated in Davao City. The police admit that it is hard for them to solve crimes committed by persons whose faces are fully hidden by helmets that cover the entire head and face.
Of course, we agree that the objective of the law on the mandatory wearing of helmets by motorcycle riders is noble because it will ensure the safety of the riders from getting hurt or even the possibility of dying should they meet an accident on the road.
Unfortunately, some people with criminal minds are taking advantage of the law by concealing their identities in the guise of complying with the legal mandate.
Our take on this matter, though, is for the government to suspend the implementation of the law and have it amended by Congress by introducing some additional features like the helmets to be used should not cover the face of the riders. Or, provisions like compelling helmet-wearing persons entering business establishments like banks, pawnshops, money remittances firms, or even groceries and department stores to take off the helmet and leave the same in a designated place at the entrance or exit doors.
We can be certain that such amendments to the helmet law will ensure that built-in safeguards are instituted so there will be no abuses done by those with criminal intentions.
We are challenging our city’s congressmen to rise up in the House and propose for the amendment of the law. They could end up heroes if they succeed in doing so.
