BECAUSE of the letter of colleague Noel Tulabut to the old and new Mabalacat City Council, action was immediately taken regarding the unsightly - and traffic-causing - ukay-ukay down MacArthur Highway across McDonald's Dau. They're no longer there last I looked, but late last night, I noticed a couple of sheds selling CDs - obviously pirated - on the same spot. What gives? Are these illegal vendors going to creep up again and do business on the streets once more? Kulang pa ang paglilinis ng kalsada, Mabalacat City.
I have written about the same thing before, but until Noel published in Sun.Star his open letter to the council, my laments were ignored. So, thank you Noel. But there's something far more damaging to the new city's image, and these are the illegal structures along the highway and major roads that exceed the mandated setbacks. Wherever you go, you'll see these structures, making flow of traffic difficult especially during rush hours. Not only that, it is outright usage of public land, because the building or house's frontage does not belong to the house or building owner. It is the public who does. Nothing personal here, but the spaces next to and across the Dau Elementary School in Quezon Drive, Dau, are all taken up by illegal structures (a salon and a spa offering massage), and incredibly, the owners were able to secure business permits from the city. Maybe new city councilor Geldry Pineda Aquino can look into these?
Many years ago, in another administration, Bayani Fernando ordered all such illegal structures dismantled. The mayors had to follow the DPWH chairman's orders. For that, Fernando earned my respect. Unfortunately, his term at the DPWH was shortly aborted. Rumor had it that he stepped on a lot of toes close to the powers-that-be. He was too strict as to the cost of bids for infrastructures . He knew, as a former contractor, how much they make and how much is the additional cost added for the um, politicos.
Hardly have we recovered from the campaign poster outbreak in the months leading to May 13 - with the posters still up, mind you - there's still another election coming up this year. The barangay captain wannabes and their respective wanna-be kagawads are starting to move although the campaign period has yet to start. (The election is not until October.) For the residents of Dau in Mabalacat City, it promises to be a good fight between incumbent Kapitan Atlas Morales and former councilor and failed board member candidate Dr. Aurelio. To make the fight more interesting, I hear Dereck Dee has bowed out of the kapitan race. The Morales-Aurelio one-on-one puts Mayor Boking on the spot. Atlas is his son, and Dr. Aurelio a long time supporter.
There is a clamor from residents of barrio Duquit, Mabalacat City for their famous neighbor MMS to run for kapitan in their barangay. MMS is weighing her options, and she just might enter the race. The other kapitan-wannabes in Duquit have reportedly bowed out of the race. In the last elections, vice mayor candidate MMS (who lost to Christian Halili) scored a landslide win in Duquit. It promises to be an easy win, if ever, for Marjorie Morales Sambo. And just in case she does decide to run for Duquit kapitan, it would be to show what she can do as a public official, albeit on a smaller scale. Duquit would be so lucky to have her, if I may say so myself (as her mother). I know firsthand that MMS is headstrong and focused, a combination that makes for political will.
Abangan.