I LIKE baby steps, especially when the alternative is no step forward.
So when P-Noy announced in his inaugural speech four years ago the demise of the “wang-wang” (sirens blasting from moving vehicles), that was a happy moment. For ages, people… especially politicians… always announced their entry by motorcades practically bleating “Here I come, so get out of the way!”
Soon after that, though, hospital ambulances suddenly were on every road.
Coincidence?
And this always happens during peak hours. As if emergencies are perfectly timed with road snarls, going-to-work-or-school time, and dismissal time. Another coincidence?
I ask because about a month ago, an ambulance headed down Gen. Maxilom Ave. was following the traffic flow. When traffic stood still, however, the driver just turned on the alarms, wiggled out of the cueing and pumped his accelerator. Hmmm. Patient was in distress?
During the Tomas Osmeña mayorship, his car reportedly followed a speeding police car to see what the full wang-wang was about. The car stopped at an eatery. Caught red-handed, the abusive government employees were reportedly suspended.
So, have ambulances taken their place? Is anyone doing a random check?
Wang-wangs are expressions of one’s misplaced sense of entitlement. They can take alternate forms, too. Like doing a double parking in the busy intersection between P. del Rosario Ext. and Urgello St.
So, here was this city garbage truck last Thursday picking up the refuse from the households when lo and behold, a white pick-up bearing the Cebu City Government logo pulled up beside it to unload his garbage.
Right in front and at the back of the garbage truck was ample space for parking. But this brassy fellow double-parked beside the truck, despite.
The rest of us--private car owners and taxi/jeepney drivers--just waited for his self-appointed graciousness to finish his dumping task.
Now comes House Bill 4807 (Protection against Personal Intrusion Act), commonly referred to as the Anti-Selfie Bill, that has passed second reading.
Why, the passage has even outpaced the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill. Though enshrined in the New Constitution of 1987, and filed for the first time in Congress over 27 years ago, Congress still has to pass the FOI Act.
While the P-Noy administration won on the platform of cleansing government service of graft and corruption, and institutionalizing transparency and accountability, some of its moves appear to be countermoves.
It is dragging its feet on the passage of the FOI Act. Now there’s HB 4807. Curtailing people’s right to monitoring of public funds and ensuring government processes to be aboveboard, will only protect rather than ferret out corrupt practices.
HB 4807 allows all corrupt politicians and their cohorts, while passing fat envelopes under the table, to remain hidden, un-photographed, un-posted, un-tweeted.
All philandering politician-husbands in sleazy bars shall not be photographed without their permission. Neither their vehicles with government plates parked by the roadside. No more such postings in Facebook, or bouncing of tweets.
Despite the wang-wangs of vulgar spending and garish lifestyles, these shall be protected under the guise of “protection of private moments”!
Crazy bill!
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)