PUBLIC interest, first, yes. Notice the emphasis on first because foremost on the priority list of government officials is public welfare and comfort, if not convenience.

Traffic experimentations are the turf and forte of traffic enforcers. They may look over situations on the streets and, if found clogged and congested, they may institute measures to de-clog and decongest them, but there are instances when experimentations do harm than good on the motorists as what temporarily happened in the City of San Fernando recently when barriers were placed in front of the two malls, the busy convergence points of shoppers, oglers and petty thieves.

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And what happened? A monstrous traffic jam occurred when the "experimentation" barriers were installed. It is good that the concerned city officials later became rational and sensitive enough to put off the plan and remove the obstruction and then put status quo on the traffic flow.

But what is this I heard that the barriers were put up in order to drive across a message to SM Pampanga regarding its alleged delayed contribution to the giant lantern festival? If this were true, why let the public suffer because of the delayed submission of the sponsorship of the giant mall? Ah, talk about intimidation, if not outright harassment, if totoo!

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No rollbacks. While oil prices have been steadily going down in world markets and the oil industry players in the country are responding to clamor for decrease in oil pump prices, public utility vehicle drivers and operators are not too keen on lowering fares.

If one commutes from home to a point inside the Clark Freeport, say, from main gate to the site of the old AOL (now ETelecare), one is charged P12.50, from the previous P9.50. Are not members of the transport group servicing commuters inside Clark aware of the slashes in oil prices that they seem to have their own fare matrix? Cannot the Operations and Technical Services department of the CDC, headed by Frank Madlangbayan, do something to compel the Greater Clark Zone drivers and operators to follow the LTFRB rules on fares?

The same rueful scenario prevails on trike drivers' turf. These petty tyrants increase fares, never mind the oil price slashes. Ah, but I have been griping about their one-sided actuations for a time now, to no avail, it seems.

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I give it to Angeles City Councilor, Atty. Pogz Suller for his initiative in inviting the DFA to conduct another Passport Serbilis service activity in order to allow those who were not able to avail themselves of the fast processing of their applications sometime this year staged by a team headed by DFA main office team leader Pete Monte and coordinated by Peso Angeles, to get another chance to benefit from a no-hassle passport service.

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Global Mercury Group Ltd., a group "focused on the ethical recruitment of Filipino workers to work in Canada" and headed by CEO W. George Conroy will conduct a three-day seminar starting December 5 up to December 8, 2008.

Julius Quizon, a young marketing executive for Central Luzon, advised that the Angeles and Mexico LGUs have signified their intention to host the seminar for one day each.

In a letter addressed to Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales, Global Mercury seeks to have an audience coming from Mabalacat.

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CDC's employment population on the rise. From 44,000 jobs reported previously, the tabulation cites some 57,000 workers inside Clark, and with the full operationalization of Texas Instruments soon, the figures will go much higher.

Let's give it to President Benigno Ricafort (and his predecessor for that matter) and other officials like EVP Philip Panlilio, VPs Pepito Galang, Ernesto Gorospe, Frank Madlangbayan and managers Noemi Garcia, Fely Rondolo, Ervin Rivera, Rodem Perez and others, for their "focused" efforts to move Clark now, and how!

And not to forget, of course, the LGUs like Mabalacat, Porac, Angeles, Capas, Bamban and even Concepcion, from which the workforce may come from.

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(November 21, 2008 issue)
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