Trapos and trikes are highway nightmares (2)

Last week in this space, I made no mention of other regions in the country but specifically cited CALABARZON . That was done on purpose to highlight my and so many others’ firsthand experiences as

motorists traversing with regularity the highways and national roads. It’s in deed disappointing and frustrating how our local Chief Executives, the trapos, are doing about their mandate under RA4136 which bans trikes on national roads. Exactly my point is that the Mayors are at fault for not complying with and/ or enforcing the laws governing the use of roads and highways. What’s disconcerting is that the LGU chiefs, the trapos, don’t do anything to enforce the law that bans trikes or three-wheel vehicles on all highways in the country. Most, if not all, mayors are manifestly cowards — no balls and selfish. Why cowards and no balls? Because most, if not all, have no courage to enforce the land transportation law or RA 4136 that bans trike on highways. To be exact, purposefully, the trapos don’t enforce the law.

Dolores, Quezon ex-VM Ver Capino points to the mayor’s fear of “TODA TODA” (tricycle operators and driver associations). Really, trapos are more about patronage and political expediency. These local chiefs wouldn’t enforce the law or even order the police to do it because, indeed, they wouldn’t dare antagonize the tricycle drivers and operators who deliver a significant sectoral vote every election. The votes to be generated from the transport sector are primordial or more important than anything else to their political interests tactically and strategically. That’s the rationale, the argument, and that makes the local chiefs too selfish to the general constituency. The inaction denies most people the common good of traveling with smooth, safe and faster mobility to their destinations.

When Secretary Eduardo Año was DILG chief, he ordered all mayors to implement the ban on trikes but he was ineffective. No one obeyed him. That’s why I am convinced that most LGU chiefs engage in politics, run for public office and get elected not to govern well, provide a better life for the people who put them in office, make their towns and cities peaceful and orderly, but to promote their and their families’ short and long term political and economic interests only. I’ve been trying to find one mayor who enforces RA 4136 from Sto. Tomas Batangas

all the way to the last town in Southern Luzon. I have found none, although there’s one in Northern Luzon – Naguilian, La Union Mayor Niere T. Flores, a lady with balls, steely enough to do what’s right. In this country, rare are leaders who can serve as models of leadership and good governance. But this is the Philippines where even the police officers are almost always in the newspapers, on the radio and on TV news, not for good things but for their involvement in crimes. Although not everything is rotten, lazy, incompetent, or abusive. For instance, I thank those who

deserve praise. Worth mentioning are P/ Col. Vimellee R. Madrid and P/Col. Ricardo Punzalan s e r i o u sly and competently handles and resolves concerns brought to us by our DAILY TRIBUNE readers and TULAY TV viewers in Davao City and other areas in Mindanao. Since the trapos are the root of our highway nightmare with the trikes, conclusively, the best option is for us to call on President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to order the implementation of RA 4136 so that, finally, we can have safe, efficient, peaceful and enjoyable highways to traverse, not only in Calabarzon but everywhere from Mavulis, Batanes to Jolo.

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