IN RECENT weeks, several cities in Metro Manila and provinces in Luzon were submerged in floodwater with varying depths.
As a consequence, the government is now flooded with criticisms of either failed, low-quality, or totally non-existent flood control projects. To salvage whatever is left of the reputation of the national government, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has ordered a thorough investigation into the graft-laden flood control and “guni-guni” projects. The mandate of the President is to ferret out the guilty parties, have them pay for their misdeed, and imprison them.
The Presidential order to have the projects probed also led both the Senate and the House of Representatives to conduct their own probe, supposedly “in aid of legislation,” although it is clear that those participating in the investigation are more using the venue for their grandstanding. And there are also some of them clearly showing their intention to pre-empt any move in the probe itself that may drag their names into the anomaly.
Locally however, Acting Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte through his lawyers, is also “flooding” the Office of the Ombudsman Mindanao with strings of cases against a number of government officials in connection with the alleged arbitrary arrest of his father former President Rodrgigo R. Duterte, and turning him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherland.
All complaints are criminal in nature, including the alleged “kidnapping” of his father. But will this flood of cases succeed in submerging the Office of the Ombudsman up to its nose so the office will just have to recklessly rule the cases in favor of the complainants? Or will the Ombudsman’s resolution be the one Baste fears to the bones? That is, the ruling favors the respondent officials, thereby further dimming the chances of the release, interim or full, of the acting Mayor’s father from his incarceration in the ICC detention center.
But of course, we can understand the move of Acting Mayor Baste. Who is the son who will not do anything within his power to help save his father from his ignominious fate? Isn’t it that his ICC detention is a consequence of his belief that his means in attaining his objective of saving the younger generation of Filipinos justifies his intended ends of effectively stopping society’s moral destruction due to illegal drugs use?
Yes, the Acting Davao City Mayor has to do just that, no matter the cost and the potential hurdles his cases could possibly meet.
After all, Baste knows very well that politics is rearing its ugly head in the evaluation of his cases against the high government officials concerned.
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The City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) has announced to the public that there will be an additional 150 personnel to man vehicular traffic in the city’s roads. They are also expected to enforce all the laws governing road utilization by drivers of both public utility vehicles and those privately owned.
We can only hope that their fielding in strategic locations can really help in managing traffic and not cause further congestion of city roads because of their low understanding of the responsibilities put on their shoulders, or their possible taking advantage of the traffic laws to gain certain advantage for themselves or for their favored personalities..
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It is nice to see composite teams of people from the City Engineer’s Office, the City Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Office, The Cenro and the ASU joining forces to clean city roads and drainage canals after most of the city’s low-lying areas were flooded by rainwater last Saturday night.
While their activities are not a guarantee that there will be no more floods in areas concerned, definitely they are a sight to behold. Imagine warm bodies immediately responding to calls for assistance by communities that are dirtied by rubbish carried and deposited by the floodwater!
Our personal take on the matter is that the offices concerned deserve official recognition by the city government. Such will surely encourage other offices to do their share in responding to situation of that kind.
What about it Honorable men and women of the City Council? After all, no money will be involved here; just a Council resolution, or perhaps plaques or certificates.
