MILITANTS critical of the recent deployment of military personnel to the streets to help address the traffic problem worry that the move is preparatory to the declaration of military rule in the country. They also talk about militarization. They could be right but the more apt concern is practicality.
Or what’s this penchant for calling on the military every time the civilian authority is faced with problems of a certain magnitude? When illegal drugs were successfully smuggled into the country, attesting to the reality that smuggling is still rampant in our ports, the military was deployed to the Bureau of Customs.
How big is the civilian authority’s problem with traffic that the military has to be deployed to our streets? Or should we say how big is the Cebu Provincial Government’s problem with traffic that the military has to be called in? In the same vein, one can question the ability of the newly formed Inter-Agency Council for Traffic (I-ACT) to solve the province’s traffic woes without the military.
The other problem was raised by the local government units, specifically the City of Talisay Traffic Operation Development Authority (Cttoda), about the lack of coordination when I-ACT flexed its muscle, using the military of course, in their jurisdiction. Wouldn’t it have been good had I-ACT consulted the LGUs, which have their own traffic units, before their operation and the deployment of military men in their areas?
Finally, you have the image conjured by uniformed men carrying high-powered rifles on the streets, an image proper only to highly militarized zones like, say, Marawi City at the height of the siege by terrorists. In more advanced nations, their traffic policemen only carry sticks and sometimes short guns, while apprehending traffic violators.
We are not even talking here of the possibility of abuse being committed by those behind this setup in the long run. That is why the Cebu Provincial Government and Gov. Hilario Davide III, who heads I-ACT, should review the logic of the move, including the assigning of the military to a task the civilian authority could manage well if imbued with enough determination and dedication.