The road most traveled

By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas

There were two sections of Marcos Highway which were re- blocked (re-cemented) from November 4 to 15. These were short sections one was 50 meters and the shorter one right after the Crystal Cave crossing was just about 25 meters. Other contractors would have undertaken the whole job in one month. Luckily it was awarded to the fastest contractor around and he finished the job in about 10 days, curing included.
Ten days was fast by our standards. The Japanese in their own country, however, would finish it overnight.
Overnight? You must be kidding. Yes, they can do it because they think they can do it. For us, however, we think that that would be impossible. So we cannot do it in so short a time.
I will keep on repeating the fastest road construction that happened here, in this region. The 40 kilometer Kennon Road. It was built from scratch of bare rocky mountains and rivers. Rocks had to be blasted and bridges had to be built to span rivers. It was finished in four years. If that was undertaken by our standards now, it would have taken a 100 years.
Just look at that bridge below the La Trinidad Capitol. A small part of it was destroyed several months ago. Up to now nothing is being done about it. Will it take us four years to repair a small part of a bridge? And yet last year, the DPWH only spent less than 40% of its budget. It might be the same this year. So why is nothing being done about the bridge when there is money sleeping in the coffers of the DPWH?
But then again this would not be the Philippines if we are thinking and acting right.
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Several weeks ago, a friend of mine came from Tabul City, Kalinga. Having been used to the strict enforcement of the no smoking law in Baguio City in public places and in business establishments or offices (whether government or private), he was shocked to see at the premises of the “munisipyo’ in Dagupan, public officials and employees openly smoking cigarettes. What a very good example for the kids to follow to destroy their health.
These smokers can rightly argue that the city does not have a law or ordinance banning smoking in public places or establishments, but that is not the point.
The point is officials or leaders of the community should have caused the passage of such a law. They are supposed to be leaders and as such should be thinking ahead for the welfare of their constituents.
Officials who do not think this way are not real leaders. They might have been elected into office but they are not leaders. Leasers are those who think ahead of the rest. Those with a backward way of thinking are better suited as just followers.
Another thing that was witnessed by this friend of mine was a traffic jam caused by the incompetence of police officers who were at the site. Well, they might need more exposure and training. The renaming of the municipality into a city must have shocked whatever little competence the officers have when it came to dealing with heavy traffic. Why not send those officers to Metro Manila for an extended experience? Perhaps after being exposed to the pollution in Metro Manila’s streets, their brain cells would suddenly wake up.
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It was a welcome news the growth of cooperatives around the region. Perhaps it can be called a progress but a lot more has to be done for these coops to grow and replace the role of big banks in the countryside.
This would help in a big way to democratize wealth. If big borrowers will just go to their coops for money to finance capital expenditures (CAPEX) instead of going to the universal banks, they would feel a lot better as they will have a share from the earnings from the loan in the form of patronage rebates, for instance.
For this to happen, however, the government should infuse capital into the coops instead of losing the taxpayers’ money through corruption.
And the coops should find ways to lower the interests they are charging member-borrowers, particularly on loans solidly secured by real estate mortgages. This will mean more borrowers resulting in economic growth.**