Whatever happened to the Safer Cities Initiative, a public safety program spearheaded by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to enforce local ordinances and reduce urban crime across the country?
When it was first launched in April 2026, and in the several weeks that followed, implementation was pretty strict. I was surprised not to hear the shouting of minors and out-of-school youth past 10 in the evening, which had been a common racket. In the vicinity of the office along P. del Rosario St., children who were still outside were warned to return home by someone inside a barangay vehicle with a megaphone at least 15 minutes before the curfew started.
Smoking in public places became less common, which was a godsend for someone who used to smoke two packs a day but kicked the habit more than a decade ago. The tone-deaf Regine Velasquez wannabes who would belt out “All by Myself” into the wee hours of the morning also disappeared overnight. Thankfully. I’m going to skip the public drinking bit because I don’t want to come out sounding like a hypocrite, especially since many know about my penchant for the bottle. Ahem.
The only thing that raised an eyebrow was authorities targeting members of the public who roamed the streets shirtless. I thought that was anti-poor. After all, we live in the tropics where the humidity is relentless and temperatures are cruel. I’m pretty sure if those men could afford air conditioning, they would not leave the comfort of their homes. They’d all be inside, probably with their shirts on.
Well, the DILG did get some flak after police apprehended someone working outside his home without a shirt on. But aside from that hiccup, I thought the initiative was received positively overall. The fact that it lasted more than a month was in itself a miracle.
After all, we are in the Philippines, where looks are more often than not valued over substance and the implementation of laws and ordinances is, at best, sporadic. Which brings me to the question: what happened to the Safer Cities Initiative?
Did local governments and authorities get tired of fulfilling their mandate? I’m asking because the violators have come out of the woodwork. Or, at the very least, they are once again visible. Or audible.
I know they have bigger fish to fry. The metro’s worsening garbage situation is one of them. Ever since the tragedy at the Binaliw Sanitary Landfill in Cebu City last January, where 36 people died after a mountain of waste collapsed and buried sanitation workers, local governments have been scrambling to find alternative sites to dump their garbage.
The Cebu City Government alone spends between P4.2 million and P4.5 million to haul and dispose of its garbage in the southwestern town of Aloguinsan, located some 60 kilometers away. Local officials have warned that this spending is unsustainable and threatens to exhaust the City’s garbage funds.
Another perennial problem is flooding. I know it’s the farthest thing from people’s minds now that the region is on the cusp of what meteorologists have said will be a very strong El Niño phenomenon — marked by extreme heat and severe droughts in our neck of the woods — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be heavy rainfall. Yes, these will be few and far between, but occur they will. And when that happens, many of the metro’s streets will be inundated with floodwater.
So yes, I guess I can cut the DILG, local governments and the police some slack.
I have to admit, on paper, the Philippines has some of the best laws there are to cover all aspects of life. Okay, I don’t know this for a fact — I am just assuming since we have so many lawmakers who have the public’s interest etched in their hearts (and I’m saying that with a straight face) — and I’m sure a majority of them have crafted ordinances and laws that preserve the dignity of every Juan and Juana out there.
Hence, there is the curfew ordinance for minors, a law that regulates public smoking, drinking and videoke singing, as well as the ban on going shirtless in public, to name a few.
But the problem has never been the lack of laws. It has always been their non-implementation. Maybe our elected officials are afraid they’d lose votes in the next election if they go after violators. Although it’s unfair to heap all the blame on them. After all, it takes two to tango.
There wouldn’t be a need for a curfew if parents made sure their children were home in time for bed. Or if smokers didn’t throw their cigarette butts all over the place as if the sidewalk were their own personal backyard. Or if frustrated singers didn’t yell at the top of their lungs at such ungodly hours. You know what I mean?
Perhaps, because we know our government has its hands tied with so many challenges hounding it, we should police our own ranks. After all, many, if not all, of these laws were created to secure everyone. Until then, we’ll keep passing laws we have no intention of enforcing and blaming everyone but ourselves when they fail.