About a month after the assumption of the new administration of Baguio City, there are noticeable differences.
While there are still reported illegal gambling joints, many of the publicly recognized gambling venues were closed. Hopefully, there will be a total shut down of these joints and that there will be no backsliding.
Many vehicles along streets whose owners misappropriated sizeable parts of the road as their permanent parking spaces, are now gone. Sustaining this will result in continued praises for the new mayor. There is really nothing new as to this policy. Former mayor Domogan even delegated the apprehension of illegally parked vehicles to the barangays that will have some share from penalties or fines, but as usual such delegation proved to be the achilles heel of the program. The barangay officials proved to be another concrete example of our nigas cogon attitude.
Very visible also were the traffic policemen even when it was raining. Garbed in proper raincoats and boots, they ensured the smooth flow of traffic in critical areas. The past tense is being used here because last night there appeared to be only one visible traffic policeman outside of the CBD, at the junction of Marcos Highway and Legarda Road. All other critical areas appeared to be clear, clear of traffic policemen. Hopefully this was due to lack of officers and not again a case of ningas cogon.
About 50 years ago, there were narrow roads in the city that even became narrower because of vehicles parked, sometimes on both sides. These were Sepic Road (the first one on the left coming from the top of Bokawkan that goes down to Ferguson Road) and the road at Rock Quarry. There are of course many other roads similarly situated but these are of newer vintage in attaining such sorry state. Up to now those two roads are still the same. They are made a lot narrower due to parked vehicles.
While towing of illegally parked vehicles and ensuring the presence of traffic policemen in critical areas are not new, so also is the anti-gambling stance, what will make the difference between then and now which could assure the new mayor’s political future would be consistency and intensity of enforcement of the rules. Will he be able to sustain it?
Everybody is praying that he will and that he will prove that he is not just a flash in the frying pan. **