Tokhang for graft and corruption

Perhaps it is time that everyone stops placing unreasonable expectations on the MMDA to find a solution to the traffic or congestion on EDSA. Even if we gave them all the money in the world and all the manpower they could ask for, they still can’t change things because the laws of physics, engineering etc. clearly tell us that we simply don’t have enough roads and there are too many cars going through EDSA. They also don’t have real powers except those extended to them by the Mayor-Members of the Metro Manila Council. What we need is a RADICAL – EMERGENCY deployment of more trains, high capacity or train-like buses on dedicated lanes on EDSA that could share the use of the carpool lane.

It’s time to shift the focus and expectation to the DPWH and DOTr because they are actually the two main government agencies that should be working with local and international experts regarding immediate solutions for mass transit and mobility. While GM Garcia gets his jockey’s in a twist trying to find answers via rerouting, why are we not pounding on Secretary Tugade’s office and Secretary Mark Villar to give us answers if not some hope that they actually have a plan?

All we ever get are updates on the number of trains when what we need are real projects off the ground that will give Metro Manila more than the two antiquated lines (LRT and MRT). We need the DPWH and the DOTr to actually lead, push, initiate mass transit projects NOW. Sorry, but there is no clarity of purpose or intent from Tugade and Villar that tells us there is light at the end of the tunnel. All they ever talk about are the proposals of other people and companies, not actual plans of the Duterte administration.

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I have not heard the response of MMDA General Manager Jojo Garcia to the Senate Resolution calling for a stop to his ban on single occupancy vehicles on EDSA, but I would suggest that he reconsider and redesign his solution toward an acceptable compromise. Like I’ve written before, many of us would whole-heartedly support a dedicated “Carpool Lane” for high occupancy lanes as long as it’s properly organized, vehicles are marked or identified as registered HOVs with the MMDA or LTFRB. GM Garcia could also integrate P2P or Point-to-Point buses on that lane and it would be more popular than banning 70 percent of vehicles from EDSA.

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The President grows weary and whines about the never-ending corruption. What I found ironic was that he pointed to the heart-breaking discovery of corruption in the military done by high-ranking officials in charge of medical services and in the same breath suggested that he should step down and leave a Military Junta behind. That simply does not make sense. The guy is human and given the enormity of his responsibility over a nation of “Pasaways,” he is entitled to bitch or whine once in a while I suppose. I fully support his call for a court martial of the crooks and I would even go further to suggest that if the punishment applies in military courts; sentence the crooks to death by musketry in the middle of the scenic Camp Aguinaldo golf course.

Sorry to sound so “unchristian,” but I am unashamedly PRO-Death penalty and the Bible gives the power over life and death to the state, the “king” or God’s appointed leader of the land. The fact of the matter is that such crooks don’t believe they’ll get caught or that they are already untouchable. But they are not alone in that mindset. Drug dependent rapists and incest rapists see no serious or deathly consequence to their acts. Neither do the drug lords and big time pushers. We can call our neighbors in ASEAN “barbaric” but they all impose the death penalty for such crimes. Japan recently executed seven terrorist/cult members who released Sarin gas in a Tokyo subway. Very recently Nebraska executed a double murderer using Fentanyl. According to Google 31 states in the US actively impose the death penalty. 

If you think things are not bad, this week alone I read three different reports of toddlers or girls up to eight years old being raped by an immediate relative on drugs and alcohol. Pair that with drug busts amounting millions or billions in shabu plus the V Luna Medical Center anomalies. Nothing else seems to work. Not the law, not law enforcement. It’s because you cannot use law and logic with people who have burned their brains with drugs or absolute greed.

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When President Duterte expressed his frustration over the incessant graft and corruption in government, I asked around on who was officially in charge of the war against graft and corruption. All the answers I got were vague. The general impression is that there is a commission or a bunch of presidential appointees who’ve been “appointed” but with very little to work on. If the President is truly serious about fighting graft and corruption, then he ought to concentrate on establishing the Philippine Anti-graft and Corruption Authority or something similar and give it all the muscle and the funds and place it under a council composed of the country’s staunchest anti-graft and corruption warriors or personalities. The President cannot “scare” away the greedy and the criminal minded, he has to make it clear that he has an “army” of Filipinos who will investigate, file and follow up on charges of graft and corruption. Many countries such as Malaysia and Australia have honest to goodness anti corruption institution and they carry on fighting long after political parties have come and gone.

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