You know I shouldve posted this earlier but watching tonight's episode of The Correspondents gave me that unmistakable impetus to finally release this flood of frustration welling up inside me.
Basically we know na what happened to the country in the wake of Ondoy and Pepeng. It virtually put the heart of the country to a stand still. Not counting the human lives lost or psycho traumas involved, to lose 5? 6? 7 billion pesos worth of livelihood and agriculture is just you know, it should really push us to do something about our problem; a problem which can be ultimately traced to 3 factors (accdg to the program)
1.) Politicians
2.) Squatters
3.) Metro Manila's very poor urban planning
For those people who blame God only or the squatters only, I'd have to say THEY'RE WRONG. DEAD WRONG AS A MATTER OF FACT.
personally, the first in the order of blame is the previous governments. As far as I know, aside from our city's having poor urban planning, the politicians who are supposed to implement and enforce the city plans didnt do so.
There is this one interviewee na tinanong ni Karen Davila about why everything has gone down to this and ang sabi nung guy, if my memory serves me right, the name is Nathaniel von Einsiedel, ang sabi nya
"what is planned is not implemented and what is implemented is not part of the plan"which is true.
personally, I put the politicians on the first order of blame
1) corruption (a given)
2) accdg to one of the interviewees, the terms of office of the politicians are too short to implement long-term solutions, and because of that, they think short-term too.
3) conservative when it comes to public works spending. sabi daw na there should've been such a thing called "Paranaque Spillway" in order to assuage the Pasig river whenver Laguna Bay floods but because the government became stingy, this so-called spill way never came to realization.
Second in the order of blame are the squatters - fine, they could forgiven for not having known beforehand that the place where they pitch their shacks stand on shaky ground.
but there are, i think, a number of reasons why ignorance can never be an excuse to sin.
1) yung pagtatapon nila ng basura along the rivers and water ways.
salaula - this I think, is the perfect tagalog word to describe their dwellingplaces. the english word Filthy is even an understatement - it is
sala-ula - basura nila yung bumabara sa mga spillways, floodgates o kung ano man na maglalabas ng baha papunta sa dagat. what should have otherwise been their sole consequence has been shared by others who through no fault of their own were victimized by their irresponsibility. needless to say, sila din ang nabiktima. yung basurang tinapon ay bumalik.
2) they use their votes as political leverage so the "public servants" could give in to their caprice.
3) they still arrive in hordes and hordes knowing full well that the city couldn't simply support a rapidly increasing bottom-heavy population.
Last but not the least, it's our poor Urban Planning daw. another interviewee says that the city model which Metro Manila used was Los Angeles. This is wrong daw because Los Angeles is a city designed for autos and not for pedestrians (unlike new york). inconvenient daw satin itong model na ito because Manila is basically a commuter city. there are enough people who own cars to cause traffic but paradoxically not enough cars to transport alot of people.
another was that some buildings are situated where they arent supposed to be, such as in areas that are labeled as danger zones, or areas that are supposed to be open-space/parks/fields etc.
dapat daw maraming reservoirs or lakes or
trees within the city and the outlying areas surrounding manila. but no, look at the city right now - it's a concrete jungle - sobrang konti ng mga open space. kung meron man, it becomes a site of development or slums.
in otherwords, puro development and development and development na ang nagyayari, hindi na nagiging efficient yung mga waterways naten. nababara na ng basura at ng mga bagong buildings. at yung mga lugar na kung saan hindi dapat paglagyan ng mga gusali, nilalagyan because, perhaps, of bribery or of poor government overseeing.
practical points:
i believe this is the way to go in order to bring the city to a positive growth
1. congress should pass legislation that would put restrictions of suffrage (pagboto). only people who originally lived in an area are those who can vote. why is this a solution? because the squatters (who just migrated here) use their voting power to control the politician. saan kayo nakakita ng taong walang TIN, walang SSS, walang permanent address, walang NBI walang Birth Certificate pero mayong Voter's registration ID?
kaya tignan nyo, pagka hindi nabigyan ng donation or ng mga freebies, ang panlaban nila palagi ay
"may boto din kami!"what would be the effect of this?
well, the politicians will be forced-to-good do stuff that would really benefit society. hindi yung mag g-give in sila sa bawat luho ng mga 'voters' just to stay in power.
do these informal voters want long-term progress? no. what they want is short-term remedy. I'm sure about that.
2. extend the terms of office of politicians - masyadong short term yung kanilang term kaya ang iniisip nila yung panandaliang aliw (how to please their voters, how to give abuloy, how to donate waiting sheds and basketball courts what-fcking-not)
but if their terms of office are extendend, that's where they can think long-term na - how to strategically place vital infrastructure, etc etc
3. this is the view I share with the interviewees - there should be a central urban planning board. dapat iisang organization lang ang makakapag sabi kung ano yung
DAPAT, SAPAT AT BAWAL na mga dapat pagtayuan ng gusali.
during the time of Marcos when Greater Manila was put under the governoship of Imelda, such a central urban planning board existed.
but during the time of cory, this organization was dissolved and power was decentralized to the local government units. what resulted was each mayor/councilor/congressman tried to destroy or discontinue the previous politician's works and tried to build a 'legacy' for himself until another election comes and a new politican comes and so forth and so on.
kaya dapat ibalik na ang rehimeng Marcos!
4. tanggalin mga bobo tanga at ga.gong tao sa posisyon! yan yung katulad ng nila Gloria Arroyo, Mikey Arroyo etc dapat tanggalin yang mga puking inang yan!
a total restructuring of the government and the system! kung p-puwede, alisin ang demokrasya. freedom without responsibility is anarchy.
i, for one, am in favour of a
government administered by a meritocracy and guided by a technocracy and ruled by a benevolent dictator only those who are intellectual, who have skills and know-how, only those who are the brightest and the ambitious should rule - regardless of gender, religion, race or social status.
para nauuna muna yung kapakanan ng bayan, hindi lang ng isang specific sector of society. eh ang ngyayari satin puro nakatugon sila sa mga informal settlers. the result being that there arises a ''parasitical symbiosis" - the politician cannot live without the squatter and the squatter cannot live without the politician. paano, pareho silang naglolokohan ng isa't isa. they need to fool each other in order to survive.
5.
dapat may domestic Visa, working visa o di kaya resident card ang sinumang magbabalak pumunta sa Kabisera ng Pilipinas. kung wala kang Visa or Resident card, bawal ang mag over-stay sa NCR for more than 1 month.
dapat may domestic/working visa din sa kani-kanilang lugar para doon lang sila nakatira. kung gusto nilang lumipat ng residency, they should back up their petition process by proof of tax payment, NBI clearance, statements of assets and liabilities at chaka viable reason for changing residences.
kung wala sila nun, kailangan may guarantor sila na taga NCR giving proof that they will not become a liability towards the government and the people residing in the Capital. this is to ensure that no more informal settlers will put up homes along the river banks, wetlands, and other unauthorized areas in the city.
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teka, isasama ko na din ito
kaya I find no reason why we should blame God or his nonexistence for all the evil in the world.
kaya sa mga atheist na nagbabalak magpost sa thread ko, t*ng ina nyo nalang ..|..
