Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Speak out: Noise in Mandaue City By Joseph M. Dabon Basak, Mandaue City
Several weeks back, an Osmeña (related to the mayor of Cebu City) reportedly posted a letter in Cebu City’s web page complaining of the very noisy surrounding in Cebu City.
He doesn’t know how lucky he is; he is not living in Mandaue City.
First, he was lucky the Cebu City Council tabled his letter-complaint for discussion and promised to look into it. In Mandaue City, his letter could never have gotten the same attention it did in Cebu City.
Oh yes, the Mandaue City Council sometimes hit the headlines for some sort of activity---all at the behest of the Mayor.
Otherwise, it is gripped by an endless stupor, caring not what goes on, in and around the city. They all are busy doing nothing.
Second, of all the titles our mayor wants to pin on Mandaue City, nothing is truer than the title “Noisy City.”
Our small community in Lower Hermag Subdivision in Basak, Mandaue City is a mélange of noise loud enough to deaden one’s senses.
Private and passenger vehicles roam around with their sound systems blaring even in the night and muffler-less motorbikes scream like crazy banshees, disrupting our sleep. Making matters worse are these pesky videokes that pummel our eardrums.
In my place, restful and peaceful evenings are unheard of.
Some evenings it gets so bad that respite comes only with the intervention of Station 3 police officers. But other than asking these imbeciles to lower the noise, they cannot do anything much in the city’s political structure and state of lawlessness.
A one-page complaint lodged with the barangay captain of Tabok, which has jurisdiction over this area, elicited an inutile though lengthy response. It reeks with the claim that people’s basic right to peace and quiet is subordinate to the right of thoughtless people to sing at the top of their lungs even in the late hours of the night.
The police suggested that I bring this matter to Councilor Carlo Fortuna. But it is doubtful whether something will come out of it.
Fortuna got burned when he stepped on the toes of influential people in his enthusiasm to go after video carrera machines. Now he finds more pleasure attending to his national duties than wallow in frustration in his own city.
Still, I cast my last dice on our authorities that they may wake up from their stupor. Being a “world class city” is not about buying a tag or label that can be posted on a forehead or a city’s boundary.
It is about making the people in it live “world class,” which includes making them feel that laws are upheld and implemented and that every individual has a right that must be protected even if institutions get inconvenienced politically in the process.
