Through the works of mediation

Egay Uy .

WATERING holes where intoxicating beverages are consumed has been the subject of recent monitoring and inspection by the Regulatory and Complaint Board. 

At the Agora area in Barangay Lapasan, this city, customers of videoke or karaoke joints had to contend with the volume control of videoke machines being turned to lower levels to prevent disturbing neighboring residents.  Good for them, and for the business operators concerned, nobody howled in protest.  They merely contended with the reduced volume. At least while we were around.

Another watering hole on Corrales Avenue was complained of by its neighbors because of the noise it produces even after midnight. While the area was already reclassified as commercial – no longer purely residential – the regulated entity has to respect the rights of its neighbors who want to sleep soundly at night. After all, our rights end where the rights of others begin.

True enough, the watering hole had to make adjustments so it could exist harmoniously with its neighbors. We received reports later that the watering hole had to figuratively shut down the amplifiers of its live band at the stroke of midnight. Well, looking for a good neighbor? Here’s one.

All these, and more similar situations, reflect the beauty of mediation. As I have written in an earlier column, the RCB created a Mediation Team where complaints against regulated entities are settled. 

In almost 100 percent of the mediation cases that the RCB handled, the complainants and the respondents readily came to terms and the matters complained of resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. I am mentioning this to show that cool heads and reasonable heads could settle differences without resorting to court action – or even pulling some strings – where the losing party is almost always dissatisfied with the verdict.

Is the RCB a villain? I posed the question in an earlier column and I venture to answer it with a big “No.”  To those who may not agree with what the RCB has been doing, what alternatives do you suggest?  You don’t ensure an orderly society if we don’t regulate.

While all human beings, even the unruly trolls, were born to be innately good beings, our differences rest on how we were reared. How we were brought up spell how we behave today, or in most of our adult lives, such that to ensure public order, laws, rules, regulation, or certain norms, have to be laid down for everyone to observe. 

This way, we avoid anarchy and chaos in our society. And one way of attaining this is through the works of mediation.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)