First 100 days

Ruffy Magbanua

AS the D-Day comes closer, the campaign happening elsewhere in this election-crazy nation gets hotter by the day.

Even hotter spawned by the El Nino, now on its fifth straight month of dry spell, turning farmlands into virtual patches of parched soil hungry of precious drop of water to come from high heavens.

Amid the election frenzy, Cagayan de Oro mayoral frontrunner Congressman Rufus Rodriguez has already outlined his first 100 days at the city hall.

If by stroke of fate Rufus becomes the next city mayor of Cagayan de Oro, the first order of the day, according to his priority list, would be combatting the drug menace that has been lurking the city like no other.

Through the years, this social disease was a bane in the past administrations of Jaraula, Emano and Moreno. If left unattended, the incoming city mayor would have the same nightmares like his predecessors who were hounded by the shadows of sins inflicted by this social menace even beyond their reigns as city mayors.

True enough, the illegal drugs abound in the four corners of the city, even happening at the very nose of police outposts on broad day light.

To the curious, try to spend time in places marked as “hot spots” and you will see how shabu in sachets are sold like hot cakes by drug peddlers disguised as traders of any kind.

Indeed, this drug problem does not come easy to put closure into it, nor solved overnight with an iron hand. It requires a brave heart and the will of a leader to strictly enforce existing laws against illegal drugs.

At the same time, Rufus is looking at busting the city’s crime index through the streamlining of law enforcement bodies down to the barangays under the city’s comprehensive anti-crime campaign program.

To respond to the call for free college education, a City Public College shall be established. Embedded in the creation of the public college, scholarships to poor but deserving youth shall be enforced along with the provision of more classrooms in the barangays.

Rufus will likewise implement the city’s health care program by expanding the JR Borja Memorial Hospital. A bigger slice of the budget is expected to pour in if the hospital is “nationalized”.

In addition, city district hospitals will be established in barangay Lumbia and Tablon, respectively.

To ease traffic congestion, the Rufus administration will implement a comprehensive traffic education program involving motorists, pedestrians and the general public.

It will field more traffic enforcers and enlist the services of barangay tanods, civilian volunteers and non-government groups as partners in road and traffic management of the city.

And to attract more investments, a climate of a business-driven city will be bannered with reasonable taxes as incentives for investors to generate more employment opportunities and inclusive growth for the city.
The time has come to heed the call for change. A blue-blooded Cagay-anon at the City hall makes that change we rout about.

E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com