Why don’t we have scrapyards in PH?

Exactly 74 years ago today was the world famous D-Day landings in Normandy in what was called by allied troops as “The Longest Day.” We saw the movie “The Longest Day” that dramatized what happened in Utah, Sword, Juno, Omaha, and Gold Beaches. The American forces landed around 73,000 plus another 23,250 troops in Utah Beach, while they landed 34,250 troops in Omaha Beach and 15,500 Airborne troops. On D-Day alone, the allied command landed around 156,000 troops, by August the figure went to 2 million troops, and they ended Nazi Germany.

D-Day, which was part of Operation Overlord, will always be one of the greatest invasion stories that the world has ever known. However there is something that the world has come to know about such historic events --that they become tourist attractions. My cousin, Dr. Peter and his wife Meluz went to Paris, France, and took a train to Normandy and they had a great time seeing the German defenses. Now this has become one of my bucket list. Someday when I visit Paris again, I should go to Normandy and view the greatest battlefield that happened 74 years ago!

*  *  *

President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte is still on a firing binge, this time, he fired PhilHealth President Celestina Ma. Jude dela Serna for going on expensive travels while PhilHealth incurred billions in losses. Meanwhile, he approved the nomination of Roy Ferrer as Acting President and Chief Executive Officer of PhilHealth. Apparently for 2016, PhilHealth incurred P251.1 billion in losses that suddenly ballooned to P8.92 billion the following year. This is something PhilHealth officers have to explain.

*  *  *

I’ve gone around in so many places here in Metro Cebu and I noticed that every street has a sort of derelict vehicle that the owners didn’t seem to care that it made their neighborhood ugly. I guess this is due to the reality that in the Philippines, I have yet to see a real, honest-to-goodness scrapyard. Yes, Filipinos are known for repairing any damaged vehicle that some insurance firms would already consider a junked vehicle.

But this is also due to the fact that vehicles are parked along our roads, even in areas where they are not allowed to park. I guess it is also due to the fact that the Cebu City Transportation Office does not assign a vehicle to remove vehicles that are no longer running. Mind you, we are not alone in Metro Cebu having this problem and I dare challenge the Cebu City Government to force the owners of these derelict or damaged vehicles to remove them from our streets.

During the times I have ridden on my motorcycle, I never noticed any scrapyard anywhere in the country. I have been around the US and even visited some scrapyards and also did the same thing when I went to Japan, where they have a scrapyard just for motorcycles alone. Now if all our vehicles are in good working order, then there’s nothing much we can do about it. For think again, for a nation of a hundred million people we have no scrapyards?

Today the streets of Cebu City or should I say Metro Cebu are literally jammed with cars of all types simply because buying a brand-new car these days is no longer as difficult as it was 20 years ago. Because of flexible arrangements by our banks, people with still well-running cars sell them in order to buy the latest models in the market. So if you ask me, we are approaching an era where all of a sudden, we might have bigger problems in looking for a parking slot.

At this point, I urge the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu to come up with a unified ordinance whereby these cities would no longer allow people to purchase brand-new or used vehicles unless they can produce a parking lot for the car that they intend to purchase. There is such a law in Japan and I dare say it is time for Cebu to help our traffic problem by following this very noble law that prohibits people from owning cars if they have no place to park it.

*  *  *

For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com