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Heading for a fall
The 2007 candidates running under the
banner of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will suffer
a worse fate than US President George Bush’s defeat of
his candidates. It may even lead to even withdrawal of
support.
This is so, as the mounting of critical issues could
weigh down the administration candidates of from
senatorial down to barangay levels and affect the
remaining years of the Arroyo presidency.
The new critical issue being added to the already loaded
issues tearing down her popularity and dirtying the
image of her integrity is the Rationalization program, a
harsh move of rationalizing the irrational, believed to
be a suicidal attempt that may bring Arroyo’s early
political waterloo.
If the implementation of Executive Order 366 is pushed
through, we have all the reason to outrightly withdraw
completely our usual silent support to President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and her ’07 candidates, and to all
those rationalization advocates. Who in his right
conscience would ever cling on to support a leader who
has no care to her followers and instead, pushes them
deeper into the quagmire of poverty by dismissing them
from government service?
The alleged separation benefits for those would be
affected by the inhuman rationalization scheme would
only be temporary support for the family, unlike the
dream of getting pensions upon reaching compulsory
retirement age. – P. P. REYES, Quezon City
‘Sinturon ni Kamatayan’
I wish that through this letter,
duty-holders from national down to provincial, municipal
and barangays officials, law/policymakers and different
law enforcement agencies, can help finally address my
fear which, for years, I have been harboring.
I have this fear that starts from September and
increases my heartbeat in December, particularly after
the Christmas celebrations, which in effect impairs my
movement to freely travel, hence jeopardizing among
others my vacation. Like visiting friends and relatives
just living in adjacent barangays and towns, going to
Metro Manila or somewhere else.
I believe that I am not alone with this fear of passing
through the stretch of Gov. F. Halili Ave., from
Barangays Biñang 2nd to Turo, in the town of Bocaue,
eastward to Barangay Bagbaguin and passing through the
By-Pass Road in adjacent Sta. Maria, Bulacan. This also
includes the southbound stretch of McArthur Highway from
Barangays Biñang 1st, Bunlo and Lolomboy, all in Bocaue.
These are the areas where firecrackers and other
pyrotechnic devices are sold in different stores that
have mushroomed in the past, adjacent and/or opposite to
each other, dubbed “Sinturon ni Kamatayan” – shy of
comparing to pyrotechnic device “Sinturon ni Hudas”. The
latter is a device composed of firecrackers tied
together, while the former are rows of
firecracker-stores adjacent and/or opposite to each
other.
Imagine, you are in the middle of those streets, just
passing by, either in a public or private vehicle and
caught in a heavy traffic, when suddenly hell breaks
loose and firecracker stores explode one after the
other?
People scamper to safety, ensuing chaos. Vehicles cannot
maneuver because
they are stalled. Fire hydrants are not available or if
there’s any installed, they lack enough water pressure.
Luckily, if after all they are deployed, firefighters
with their equipments respond.
There is a joke that there are in fact huge spaces
located in between those firecracker stores and these
are, mind you, gasoline stations.
Lest I be misunderstood by other people, specially those
players in the pyrotechnics industry – small and
micro-entrepreneurs – this appeal is actually for all of
us.
The general welfare is to be upheld by duty-holders and
to be protected by law.
Equally the same for the rights and privileges of
entrepreneurs to earn a decent living, like through the
pyrotechnics industry.
A lawmaker was correct when he described that the people
and officials in the country lack the “culture of safety
and survival” in the wake of the firecracker-tragedy
that killed 25 persons and left scores of injured on
Christmas Day in Ormoc City.
The town of Bocaue is not left behind with man-made
tragedies that could have been avoided, such as the
“Bocaue Pagoda Tragedy” that killed more than 260 people
in July 1993.
“Sinturon ni Kamatayan” is already laid out in Bocaue
and smells of explosives, waiting to be triggered, by
whom and when, we do not know. This, similar to other
places in the country where firecrackers and pyrotechnic
items are sold abundantly and people are trying to beat
each other in buying.
Is my fear as well as from other people unfounded?
Look what happened in December 31, 2004 and in late
1980’s in Bocaue where many lives were lost, including
children, after rows of stores, adjacent and/or opposite
to each other, loaded with firecrackers and pyrotechnic
devices exploded one after the other in Barangays Turo
and Biñang 1st.
President Arroyo has ordered strict implementation of
laws on firecrackers in view of the Ormoc
firecracker-tragedy.
Residents have appealed to officials to finally resolve
the appropriate place where to sell pyrotechnic devices
since after the December 31, 2004 firecracker-tragedy in
Bocaue.
I also hope that the flooding of the local market of
smuggled pyrotechnic devices would be addressed. Just
like the children who are making happy their fellow
children with their intricately-made firecrackers and
pyrotechnic products light up the skies or explodes on
the ground in welcoming the New Year. But, that’s
another story. – NAME WITHHELD ON REQUEST |
