Acting MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) chief Tim Orbos doesn’t seem to run out of crazy ideas.
After his confusing odd-even scheme arrived DOA (dead on arrival) at the drawing board, here he comes again resurrecting a dead law of martial law vintage. The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered that all vehicles be stripped of their dark tints as criminals were using them as cover for their crimes.
Criminals nowadays are already so bold they commit crimes in plain view and (and on CCTV, to boot). So what’s the point? And how would that help solve the traffic problem, anyway? He said it would make car-pooling easier to monitor should that become necessary. Where the heck did that come from?
Up to now, Orbos still misses the point—or is he just too helpless to do anything about it? It’s his people’s conspiratorial refusal to enforce order and discipline among bus and jeepney operators that continues to mess up traffic everywhere. Payola is still very evident from simply watching how his so-called traffic enforcers look the other way in the face of violations committed by bus and jeepney drivers who load and unload passengers anywhere they please. Worse, they do not load and unload, and then go; they stay as long as they want to compete for more passengers. That happens all day long, and all day long, too, traffic gets choked. And where are Orbos’ men? Nowhere in sight—perhaps, hiding in ambush to pounce on private vehicle drivers elsewhere.
MARITESS DELA MERCED, mardelamerc@gmail.com