Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Editorial: Overestimating its chances
THE military may be overestimating its chances of capturing National Democratic Front (NDF) spokesman for central Mindanao Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos, but considering the frail condition of this communist rebel and the fact that they demolished his camp somewhere in Surigao del Sur province, they may have a basis for announcing that claim.
How they managed to do that had to do with the discontent and the growing complaints of the residents in the affected communities about the abuse inflicted on them by the communist rebels in the form of so-called "revolutionary taxation," which are nothing but an oppressive measure meant to prop up their dying ideological war that has lost its place in a time when even communist countries like China are adopting capitalist measures, albeit tempered with communist control.
The possibility that the military is over-estimating its chances stems from the fact that like pests that refuse to give in and scurry over every hole available, the communist rebels would further go underground if only to survive the armed onslaught of the military plus the outcry of the communities they have managed to victimize and hold in their sway for days up to several years.
Still with the combined efforts of the military, these communities and other sectors it won't be long before the insurgency has been stamped out and its perpetrators driven out to play off their sick ideology someplace where the sun doesn't shine or perhaps seeking asylum, planning for the time when they can seize the reins of power. That's something that should be prevented at al costs.
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Traysikad regulation
While the phase-out of traysikads is inevitable, the city government should at least regulate their routes until that time comes. Until then, the operation of traysikads should be kept off the national highways and other roads where there is a major concentration of traffic and pedestrian movement.
One need not be a genius to know that traysikads simply cannot keep up with the jeepneys, trucks and private vehicles that travel across the national highways but there are those operators that traverse along the sides of areas like the Marcos highway, thus posing a nuisance for both motorists, public transportation and the commuters that cross the highway.
Also, the prohibition of minors to operate traysikads should be enforced unless of course these minors somehow manage to prove along with their parents that he is the sole breadwinner for the family. Adults should operate these vehicles, which may go the way of the rickshaw in terms of public use.
It's not just the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) but the barangay officials who should help regulate these operations and not to benefit from them through extortion of their earnings.
Along this line the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) should enforce discipline and mete sanctions on these abusive barangay officials who are supposed to implement regulation but instead benefit from the misery of traysikad drivers.
