What our traffic managers should focus on

I recently passed by the South Road Properties (SRP) including a trip to Lapu-Lapu City, and while the elections last May have shifted us into a new kind of politics with a new set of officials, traffic remains unchanged despite the fact that the new officials running most of Metro Cebu have already put in place a new set of officials to handle traffic operations and management.

In both SRP and the Marcelo Fernan Bridge for instance, much remains the same and I refer to slow vehicles occupying the leftmost lane of our roads. We have slow-moving multicabs, container vans, or trucks using the leftmost lane, rather than sticking to the rightmost lane, where they all belong. Mind you, I’m not asking something new for these new set of traffic management officials since I’ve been asking for this in previous administrations.

Again, I would like to point out that I’m not asking these new set of traffic officers anything new, but rather for them not to do anything until they correct the very wrong impression that Cebuano drivers are getting especially from drivers working in Metro Manila who have to follow the lane procedures for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX).

I would like to give these officials one month from today to enforce this rule, which would actually allow traffic to move faster if it is implemented. I would like to believe that it is high time for Cebuano drivers to realize that we are mostly ignorant of traffic rules especially when we pass through the Marcelo Fernan Bridge or the SRP. What disturbs me is that our traffic managers are not doing their work properly where they should focus and apprehend those driving vehicles on the wrong lanes along the SRP and Marcelo Fernan Bridge. So let’s see if they would do this within the month. All they need to do is focus on this issue so perhaps it would do a lot to change our wrong driving habits, which actually slows down traffic.

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I learned that Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte might soon certify as urgent the passage of a measure seeking to ban single-use plastics. This was revealed by presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo who said that the president is in favor of a ban on the use of plastics, seen as one of the contributors of pollution.

This means that store owners or shopkeepers should stop selling soft drinks poured into plastic pouches or food that is placed also into these plastic pouches. The ban, which officials said could mitigate the impact of climate change, would require action by Congress. Senate bills requiring establishments to use reusable materials instead of plastic are pending at the committee level. We know that these plastics are thrown into our rivers or garbage bins and end up in our seas and eaten by turtles or sea creatures, killing most of them.

This idea was proposed by the president for the House of Representatives and the Senate to enact a nationwide law banning the use of these plastics. Pending the passage of a bill on the use of plastics, Panelo said that the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 should be implemented properly to prevent further damage to the country’s ecology. The Philippines is the world’s third largest source of plastic pollution, according to a 2015 report by the Ocean Conservancy charity and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. Let’s hope that this is the start of our cleanup drive to ensure that these plastics no longer pollute our seas.

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My readers know that I’ve never been in favor of the Sangguniang Kabataan simply because they have become the political toys of highly-politicized families. Anyway, I read in the news that the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) expressed its displeasure over the impending deferment of the May 2020 barangay and SK polls. Again, I would like to reiterate that this martial law-era SK should be scrapped but barangay polls should not be postponed but implemented right away. It is high time for Congress to give the Filipino people the right leaders within their respective barangays.