A people power rally in edsa, or fake news?

We started the year 2020 with the deaths of two close friends and a cousin of mine. But now that February is here, I thought that we’d no longer have such problems.

But then last Tuesday afternoon I learned from my Facebook friends that my good friend, Fr. Fernando Suarez, died of heart failure. He was playing his third set in a tennis match at the Alabang Tennis Court when he collapsed. He was 52 years old. Actually tomorrow is his 53rd birthday, which he can no longer celebrate.

I’ve known Fr. Suarez when I interviewed him in Cebu five years ago… about his healing ministry. He has been coming back and forth to Cebu since that time and in fact he was in Cebu only last Feb. 2 and held a healing mass at the Talamban Parish Church. What can I say… some people die of some form of virus from China…but the major killer that we have to contend with is heart failure. May we request the pious reader to please pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Suarez.

*     *     *

I don’t know if this was a fake news or what, but it seems that in the social media in a huge poster, it says that come Feb. 22nd at 2 p.m. there will be a people power rally with the purpose of removing Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. The place designated for the rally is the EDSA People Power Shrine. If this was not fake news… then allow me to say that it is some hard core Yellowtards who are trying to revive the celebration of the EDSA Revolution, which for more than 30 years was attended by thousands of people who helped oust the Marcos dictatorship.

But times have since changed that after Tita Cory Aquino exited the presidency and followed by then President Fidel V. Ramos, the crowds at the EDSA People Power celebration began to dramatically diminish to the point that even during the presidency of Benigno Aquino, the crowds in EDSA were counted only by the hundreds rather than the thousands. In fact there were more police officers manning the road than people marching to the memory of the EDSA People’s Revolt.

*     *     *

Yesterday I had to drive over to the town of Cordova passing by Lapu-Lapu City for an important meeting. Surprisingly, from my office in Lahug it only took me about an hour to reach my meeting place. I guess we can blame this on people who prefer to stay indoors rather than risk getting infected by the novel coronavirus.

Upon reaching the end of the first Mactan Bridge there was a little traffic, which reminds me of my plea a long time ago that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should construct a flyover along that corner as traffic is always heavy there. I hope that since Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza is already the lone Congresswoman for Lapu-Lapu City, she would finally solve the traffic congestion problem of this area.

Like I said earlier there wasn’t that much traffic there last Tuesday. However passing through Lapu-Lapu City and the town of Cordova meant that I had to drive with tricycles and pedicabs which no doubt slow vehicles on their way to their destinations. This reminded me of what the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued to all the local government units (LGUs) last October 2019 calling for all city and municipal  mayors to ban pedicabs and tricycles along national highways, whether in Metro Manila or in the provinces.

It was then that DILG officer-in-charge, Secretary Eduardo Año said in his press release….“For safety reasons, no tricycle or pedicab should operate on national highways utilized by four-wheel vehicles greater than four tons, and where normal speed exceeds 40 kilometers per hour.”

Meanwhile Sec. Año pointed out that while the government recognizes that tricycle and pedicab operations provide livelihood and income to Filipinos, both in the urban center and rural areas, “allowing them on main thoroughfares poses hazards to other motor vehicles, the riding public, and even to the drivers themselves.”

Truth to tell… since October the DILG has been reiterating this order to all city and municipal mayors but to no avail.

Mind you, the problem really is that the DILG probably did not talk to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) with the hope that pedicabs and tricycles that are currently serving their respective localities would be replaced by jeepneys that are still found in metropolitan cities. Many of these jeepneys refuse to change for the sake of changing our cities into having modern transportation.

*      *      *

Email : [email protected]