Serving the people

‘TIS the season of...our honorables burbling on about how it's such a privilege to serve the people of Davao; polishing up their election spiel.

“Serving” in SP - speak generally means years of 'crafting' an ordinance which passes all the committees and commissions and enquiries, becomes law, and then - oh dear - languishes unenforced, unimplemented, quietly forgotten, stuffed away in a corner until the next 'Best city for this or that' award and then - tada! - they're dusted off and flourished - hey, look what we've got! An anti-spitting law, an anti-jaywalking law (But no pedestrian crossings, who needs those?) and a, well - we think we have - a pro-bicycling ordinance.

I was bicycling on Friday and on J.P. Laurel when that new 'green' mall opened its doors - 'green' in the commercial sense means asphalting and concreting over a perfectly good golf course, an oasis of green the city will sorely miss in the future - and can confirm that both morning and after lunch the traffic was backed up and almost at a standstill as far south as the Buhangin road overpass but what did I care - Trundling along next to the kerb whistling a merry tune except where stymied by PUJ Multicabs with two wheels on the road, two on the sidewalk attempting to beat the queue and never mind pedestrians.

Greenshirts? Nary a one to be seen, they were all down you-know-where paying homage to the nobs cutting the ribbon. One of the nobs, by the way, let slip that the company's malls in Mindanao contribute only about six or eight percent of the firm's total revenue. Well, I'd guess that's because only about six or eight percent of the island's population can actually afford to buy anything in one of these flash malls, don't you?

Back to the pedaling and I did wonder what had become of Davao's bicycling bill - a meter-wide yellow-painted lane by the kerb would be quite adequate, might even keep PUJs off the sidewalks, and as I trundled whistling that merry tune I prayed there were some honorables roasting in the traffic tailback, the same honorables who only a few days ago realized that the mall possessed only one exit/entrance - Crap! We'd better pass something.

Hindsight; why didn't our illustrious honorables and city engineers insist that this new mall - and the last one and any future ones - build an entrance/exit overpass or underpass so that through traffic could carry on without being interrupted (and stalled) by vehicles turning across the flow? You know councilors - serving the people of Davao.