‘Burning down the house’

In the company of retired, tired and discharged Marines, be careful about giving the order “Clear the area.” I was once with a bunch of ex-Marines on an island in Palawan where we were building a resort. I casually told them to “clear the area,” meaning clear the place of vegetation and debris because we needed to put up a lookout post. A few minutes down the steep hill, I smelled smoke and as I looked back I saw fire! It was then the Marines told me that if you tell them to “clear the area” that means burning everything down to the ground!

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In the case of the Philippine Senate, the area has apparently not been cleared and the legislative agenda of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte may come under fire or opposition because his ally Senator Koko Pimentel May have won the Senate Presidency but not sway over the Senate majority. In a rare public admission, Senator Tito Sotto shared that the reason Senator Allan Peter Cayetano lost the Senate presidency is because Senator Cayetano was not amenable to giving certain Senators specific committee chairmanships that would directly impact President Duterte’s legislative plans. Cayetano reportedly was against Loren Legarda getting the finance committee, De Lima being on top of the justice committee, and Ping Lacson the committee on public order.

I’m guessing that Cayetano wanted to have his cake and eat it toO because he figured out that the senators who wanted to chair specific committees would eventually be the people that would block President Duterte’s various legislative agenda such as re-imposing the death penalty, federalism, tax reforms, and entry of foreign businesses or investors in key areas such as telecoms and mass transit. Both Senators De Lima and Lacson have expressed resistance if not opposition to death penalty, while Senator Drilon did not sound to be pro-federalism.

Now that the Senators got what they want in the Senate horse trade, Koko Pimentel and Duterte may no longer have anything they can use to influence or solicit the cooperation of senators particularly the P-Noy/Liberal Party blocking force that owe their loyalty and allegiance first to Noynoy Aquino and second to themselves. At best the Senate will be split over the reimposition of the death penalty and passing a law on federalism that will diminish the role and power of Senators. Even before the fact, the same senators are already noisy in their opposition to giving President-elect Duterte emergency powers to deal with the traffic crisis in Metro Manila.

I really hope Koko Pimentel becomes an authentic SP or Senate President and not the Senate’s Puppet.

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Some people are wondering why the incoming President of the Philippines, who manages to initiate a “Scourged Earth” policy against drug dealers via press conference, would need “Emergency Powers” to fix the traffic crisis in Metro Manila?

I knew from day one that DU30 would need emergency powers just to “shut up” the residents of exclusive villages in Makati, Greenhills, Parañaque, Quezon City and others who have been opposed and have continued to block vehicular traffic from crossing through their “private property.” Every time government tries to seriously address the problem of traffic, all the engineers agree that new routes and roads need to be made or opened and that the walls and guarded gates and stickered systems of exclusive villages block or prevent vehicles from travelling shorter distances.

DU30 would need emergency powers against the so called owners / investors or franchise holders of certain public utilities who have every major law firm on salary so they can tie up government in courts and TROs every time government wants to fix or improve our transport system. Emergency powers and the serious possibility of arrest and jail time would discourage transport groups from holding protests, welgas etc. to fight off programs that would phase out 50-year-old plus jeepneys, two-stroke motorcycles with open mufflers, 15-year-old vans and school buses. Emergency powers would put the fear of national government back in the lives of mayors and congressmen who in the past have threatened, cursed and yelled at the MMDA and the DPWH because they think they are the demi gods of their towns and cities. Yes there are enough reasons to give DU30 emergency powers to fix perennial problems mostly those created or caused by the politicians who understandably don’t want to give the power to DU30!

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Lost brakes my ass!

It is now automatic for drivers, especially truck drivers, to say they got into an accident that killed people and destroyed property because they lost their brakes. What is stupid about the whole thing is that traffic investigators and Police take it as gospel truth and announce it to the world without even exerting minimal effort to actually check the brakes of the vehicle, the carrying capacity of the truck or bus, how many axels the truck has, what type of cargo and whether or not the truck was overloaded beyond the stopping ability of the brakes. In short why did he lose his brakes?

Stop pinning the blame on the driver and the brakes and start hitting the DOTC, LTO, LTFRB, HPG and DPWH about what they are doing to investigate the growing problem of brake failure, overloading, absence of weigh bridge and check points. Congressmen and Senators should have investigated this problem a long time ago because of the growing number of accidents being associated with loss of brakes. As the economy grows these incidents will rise.

The brakes were not lost they were DESTROYED because of overloading. All you have to do is go to the Dalton Pass, Marcos Highway or Kennon road or Bitukang manok highway and watch how trucks struggle from being overloaded and how drivers have to stop and pour water on their wheels not to cool their tires, but to cool down their brakes!

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