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.”
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