Trapos cause highway nightmares
Trapo, the word I coined during the 1986 UP Diliman National Political Situation Conference, which I derived from the words traditional politician, is one main source of the nightmares on our highways.
Why are most politicians called trapos? Because they are more concerned with getting more votes, 365 days a year, to keep themselves in power rather than rendering genuine service to their constituencies. When you hear them mouth “I will serve you” during an election campaign, it’s the reverse after they’re elected.
Traveling from Manila or the NCR to the South, or beyond the South Luzon Expressway, which is currently being widened by the San Miguel Group by at least two lanes, is never fun. It’s a real nightmare. We, Southerners, suffer every time we have to go from our homes or offices to the NCR, etc., and vice versa, for personal, professional or other reasons. We can describe it as a curse, even as we are supposed to be enjoying the convenience of well-paved and smooth roadways as taxpayers, paying what’s due the government.
Furthermore, as registered owners of cars and other vehicles, we are charged thousands of pesos in the MVUC or Motor Vehicle Users Charge collected during registration to finance and maintain local and national roads.
Despite the MVUC, we get poor road pavement quality which can be attributed to the “kotong” (corrupt) officials, starting with the legislative district representatives and DPWH engineers (in Laguna, Batangas and Quezon provinces) who, its public knowledge, partake substantially of the appropriated funds. The fruit of the insatiable greed for money of these crooks is the potholed roads and highways.
Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan, with certainty, will deny there’s “kotong” as will everyone else in the department. No thief issues an official receipt, of course. But it has been the rule, call it SOP, and we have yet to hear of an exception. Unless you know of one.
Sources tell us the total take from every infra project is as high as 35 percent. No one will ever confess, certainly not the contractors, however much they don’t like it. They have to go by the “rule,” which is usually arranged with the congressional reps, otherwise they won’t bag any projects.
Oh, there are more points to tackle on the subject but due to space concerns, I will continue with the nightmare issue next Sunday.
Meantime, continuing my advocacy for and on the issue of a clean, potable and steady water supply in Bohol and other areas, requires me to update our Boholano
DAILY TRIBUNE readers, so let me do it right now.
Last 6 June, the Balilihan LGU for the second time stubbornly installed water facilities within Sevilla town’s jurisdiction. In addition, and in the worst manifestation of the famous words “what are we in power for” uttered by then Senate President Jose Avelino, the Balilihan LGU headed by Mayor Chatto appeared to have encroached on a portion of private lot No. 3533, covering 1.8 hectares, owned by the firm Metropolitan Realty. Concrete structures were constructed and pipes were laid down in the private lot.
Metropolitan Realty filed a case against defendants Balilihan LGU, Mayor Chatto, DPWH District Engr. John Gascon and three others before City of Tagbilaran RTC Branch 47 asking for a Temporary Restraining Order. On 24 June, to avert violence after armed men were seen in the vicinity, the Acting Presiding Judge issued a TRO wherein the defendants were “enjoined from entering the parcels of land claimed by the plaintiffs in accordance with Rule 28.”
But let’s not kid ourselves, having only 22 athletes speaks volumes about the country’s sports program. With only 22 bets, our chances of landing on the medal podium teeters on the brink depending on the amount of luck, hope and prayers — not exact science and data.
Japan, which has a population of 125 million, will be marching to Paris as an
Olympic juggernaut with 404 athletes who will see action in 34 sports. Another country that is pretty much the same size as the Philippines is Egypt, which has 111 million people and will be deploying 147 athletes in 23 sports, including fencing where it is expected to dominate and win its first
Olympic gold medal.
Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines is also struggling.
Indonesia, the biggest country in Southeast Asia with a population of 277 million, will parade 29 athletes in 12 sports, while Thailand, which has a population of 71 million, will deploy 51 athletes in 16 sports.
Even tiny Singapore, which is home to six million citizens, will be represented by 23 athletes in 11 sports — one more than the Philippines.
You see, sports are the microcosm of a society. There must be something wrong if you have a population of more than 117 million but could only send 22 athletes to the biggest and most prestigious sports event in the world.
Sure, we can use the “quality over quantity” argument all we want but the fact remains that we have to send a bigger delegation to raise our chances of winning a medal. For a country of more than 117 million, we should be sending over 100 athletes to the Olympics — not a meager 22.
The Olympics is the ultimate yardstick of how a country’s sports program is faring against the rest of the world. If you can send a bigger delegation to the Olympics, it means that you are doing something right and medals are within reach.
This is now the challenge to Tolentino and other ranking sports officials. As soon as the Paris conclave is over, they have to sit down and plot an honest-to-goodness program that aims to send a bigger delegation to the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
Because if not, the Filipinos will again be standing on the fringes of the Summer Games, leaving their chances of winning a medal to destiny, luck, and, yes, a lot of prayers.
“Sources tell us the total take from every infra project is as high as 35 percent.
“Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan, with certainty, will deny there’s ‘kotong’ as will everyone else in the department.
“The fact that the Philippines has only 22 athletes in the Olympics is both alarming and encouraging.