Domestic complaints

Cong Corrales

I HAVE been ranting about national issues for the better part of last year and the month of January. I did so not because the local government is not wanting in some areas of governance. It was because I wanted to give the newly appointed department heads to settle in their respective posts.

I gave Digong Dada a year to settle in before ranting about his policies if you insist on calling it that. So, a year is a fair enough time to give retired Army colonel Mario Verner Monsanto, overseer of the Roads and Traffic Management, to see if he could succeed where erstwhile traffic czar Edgardo Uy couldn’t quite resolve.

I’d like to see newly minted City Administrator Teodoro Sabuga-a succeed where err… who did he replace again? The last person I knew who was the city administrator was Raagas with all the security filters in his office. It was literally easier to interview the city mayor than the city administration then.

Now that I have given them a fair enough time, here are some of my domestic complaints.

Sidewalks and narrow barangay roads are still being used as an extra parking space. Worse, I saw an ambulant automotive body repair and mechanical shop. It’s not like they were ever driven or towed away to start with. I think it’s only logical not to buy another vehicle if your driveway can only accommodate one.

Our neighbor stopped for a while after giving them the stink-eye every morning. But they are back. Don’t you just love the smell of acetylene and welding rods burning on a Sunday morning? Or the fumes of their dump truck revving beside your windows, at dawn, I might add?

I remember a traffic specialist from Germany once presented his findings on Cagayan de Oro City. He said the city is not pedestrian-friendly. Every time I come home from work, I hitch with my boss up to Gaisano Mall. I then walk from there to the main church of the UCCP. It irritates me that traffic enforcers seem to be oblivious that motorcycles, sometimes taxis, and jeepneys even, encroach the sidewalk. These wayward motorists even have the gall to blast their horns as if it is their space on the road.

Where are the traffic enforcers during all of these, you ask? Well, they’re in a corner, chilling with the cops. You know, shooting the breeze, chewing the fat.

Talking of cops, I have yet to see those new big bikes patrol the inner city. Well, to be fair, I did see one last week but it was not patrolling. It just whizzed through our barangay using the siren instead of the horn to warn pedestrians to ease a way for him.

By the way, the minors who drink by the roadside until the wee hours of the morning are still at it. Until the new head of the city’s social and welfare development office “rescue” them or reprimand their parents, what they post on social media will remain exactly as it is — mere propaganda.

Where is the barangay government in all of these? Well, if you follow My Wit’s End regularly, I have been asking that too for the past five years.

That’s why I was sort of elated when my eldest told me the Barangay and SK elections will push through. Well, except in Marawi City. Sorry, guys. This administration is so hell-bent on bending your will to submission.

Going back to the Barangay and SK elections, I am happy that we could have a makeover. I think a lot of my neighbors have realized how they were in picking this guy to lead the barangay. Hell, I was wrong. I voted for him then. I thought he was different from all the other traditional politicians.

Now, I think I would rather vote a duck into the Barangay Hall than him. So, fare thee well, Chairman Dante.