Can we deceive the president?
One of the most ambitious programs President Rodrigo Duterte announced in his July 2019 State of the Nation Address was unprecedented. He ordered to clear our roads of all obstructions and return these to the public. While the program was bold, it didn’t sink in our minds fast. I have to describe it as ambitious because we have grown atrophied to the usurpation of portions of our roads and sidewalks by vendors. Decades ago, street and sidewalk vendors were seen only in cities and other urban centers, today they are visible even in the poblacions of small towns. This, to me, is an age-old problem that nobody seemed to care about. Most, if not all, of our past presidents didn’t address it. In my memory, none of them tried to remove road impediments and many of us believed this was the lookout of mayors. With the passage of years, we had to accept that this humongous problem grew out of the apparent tolerance of local chief executives.
Thanks to the characteristic relentlessness of Duterte, he saw to it that the Department of the Interior and Local Government followed through his directive in a way not easy to anticipate. The DILG issued Memorandum Circular 2019-121, giving local government officialdom 60 days to achieve the objective. That the circular itself left it to the mayors to imagine what sanction will come if they fail to meet the deadline made it more compelling. The penalty of suspension came to be mentioned quite extravagantly only towards the end of the supposed deadline. By the way, I’m not 100% sure the inability of a mayor to rid his streets of ambulant peddlers is enough legal ground to suspend him, although I’m certain no mayor would dare risk not enforcing a presidential directive.
It suddenly dawned upon us that the traffic problem posed by street and sidewalk sellers could be solved in deft strokes. Duterte just reminded everybody that roads are public domain. Occupying public domain is nuisance per se and intruders can be summarily abated. By waving the illegality of these small-time merchantmen, Duterte could lick the problem quickly. Here in Cebu City, the peddlers in Colon and other major roads began to be swept away like garbage, their protests of making a decent livelihood fell on deaf ears. Or so the public was made to believe.
In the last few hours of the road clearing operations, a local television camera caught a heated discussion between a city official, whose name I couldn’t get, and street vendors. The color of the footage was remarkably crisp and the sound distinctly clear. The latter pleaded their case saying on the street where they were vending, the lives of their families depended. Yank them off therefrom and you foreclose the decency of their human existence! Perhaps overwhelmed by the pleas, the official made a stunning assurance. But, it must be understood that in facing a near-lynching crowd, he projected authority. He said that sometime after the DILG validates the removal of all road and sidewalk obstructions, vendors will be allowed to go back to their former vending sites!
Sustainability. That’s the issue raised by neutral observers. Can the awesome impact of unimpeded roads and sidewalks be sustained? How long will the cleared roads last? The footage I saw provided the answer. It seemed to me that sooner than later, the hordes of street vendors will be back to where they peddled. The massive efforts of road clearing is but a fleeting situation aimed at nothing else pleasing the president. If the official was truthful to the vendors, he was just a part of an evolving system of deceiving our president. OMG!
- Latest
