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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Espinoza: Alay Lakad a curse for motorists
By Elias L. Espinoza
STRANDED. This was the first time after several years of observance that the Alay Lakad became controversial when the so-called stand-in comedians, allegedly clad in bikinis, somehow offended the participants.
The Alay-Lakad last Sunday may have been a success, but unknown to the organizers, the walk for a cause was like a curse for the motorists that day.
Motorists going to the south or north of Cebu after lunch on Sept. 19 had the worst day of their lives. The Alay Lakad route practically blocked Osmeña Blvd., which is the roadlink to the south and the north of Cebu.
Worse, there were no appropriate traffic signs installed at the intersections that would have guided the motorists on which routes to take. The traffic enforcers manned only the intersections near the parade route.
Even the entrance and exit to the South Reclamation Project (SRP) road was temporarily closed to give way to the Alay-Lakad that started at the Plaza Independencia. By 1:30 pm. that day, traffic became humongous.
We were among the victims last Sunday. In my haste to get to our destination quickly, I decided to pass through the SRP road from Plaza Independencia. To my consternation, the traffic cop told me that the entrance to SRP was closed temporarily.
Our appointment at the Halfway House in Laray, Talisay City under the management of Sister Marsha to deliver goodies for the street children was at 2 p.m. We arrived past 3 p.m. that day since I had to drive back almost up to Capitol just to cross over the Alay Lakad route.
I wonder how many invectives that the hundreds of motorists, who were stranded for more than an hour, hurled at the Alay Alakad organizers. The traffic rerouting, if there was one, was a total failure.
WASTE. The much-ballyhooed tell-all of a drug courier before the House committee on drugs turned out to be a fiasco since he could not make any revelation at all in the absence of his counsel.
In this time of need, the House committee of Rep. Antonio Cuenco should have been circumspect in its activities. Pardon me, but I see nothing good that came out of that committee hearing. It was such a waste.
The House committee inquiry was arranged after Willy Solon squealed that the Maritime policemen who arrested him when he got down from a boat that arrived in Cebu City from Manila allegedly kept the two kilos of shabu.
Solon, who is a courier of an alleged known big-time drug lord in Manila, got the attention of Cuenco, chairman of the committee on drugs, after he revealed to the press his alleged ordeal from the hands of his captors.
The Maritime policemen, on the other hand, stuck to their position that only two kilos of shabu were recovered from the possession of Solon. Unfortunately, Cuenco believed the accusation of Solon.
While the Maritime policemen are not angels, but from the standpoint of the Cebu City first district solon, these policemen are no longer entitled to the presumption of regularity in the performance of their duties.
It was pure luck on the part of the Maritime policemen that Ilocos Sur Rep. Salacnib Baterina insisted that Solon could not make a public statement in the absence of his counsel. Otherwise, these policemen could have been baselessly grilled in that committee hearing.
The House Committee hearing on Solon’s alleged expose was not only a waste of time and resources of this almost bankrupt government but also a duplication since Solon has already been charged in court with the appropriate criminal case.
(September 23, 2004 issue)
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