Punchline
The ‘Ado Duque Solution’
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE level of pollution at the beach area at the Tondaligan Park, fronting the Dagupan District Jail, continues to worsen each day and the Dagupan City government appears powerless to do anything about it. The city officials have long appealed to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to provide the funds and the plans to stop the pollution but to no avail. The jail’s wastes just keep pouring out to the sea and as the residents attest, the stench is becoming unbearable!
In fairness to the officers at the district jail, they are trying to correct the problem but with meager funds, they cannot be expected to effectively and finally stop the pollution and the degradation of the beach. The solution lies with the BJMP leadership.
But given the bureaucracy at the BJMP and leadership problems in the organization, the worsening situation at the district jail obviously does not appear in the priority radar. As with most government agencies, an environmental issue that does not show any indication that a crisis is at hand, can always wait.
The situation is already approaching crisis proportion but since no casualties have been reported, BJMP obviously doesn’t feel the urgency to act. Proof of this is there is no item in BJMP’s 2009 budget that seeks funds purposely for the repair and rehabilitation of the Dagupan District Jail! Translation: there is no concrete and positive response to the city government’s appeal in sight. Not today, not tomorrow!
So if BJMP feels it can simply ignore the city government, what options are there to compel BJMP to act with dispatch? I can think of only one – apply the “Ado Duque Solution”.
Sue BJMP for violation of environmental laws and its officials for dereliction of duty! Throw the book at them!
It will be recalled that the restoration movement (chaired by Dr. Salvador Duque and Dr. Viven Villaflor) that was organized in the aftermath of the 1990 earthquake that destroyed 80% of the city’s business district and elsewhere, deliberately resorted to suing government agencies to prompt them to act swiftly in the effort to restore the city from the ruins. The city got results.
The Fernandez administration should seriously consider this before both the national environment and tourism agencies make a spectacle of measuring the degradation of the beach. This would not only surely break the backbone of the city’s tourism industry but create panic in the shore communities about their health risks.
I say, sue the BJMP today and save Tondaligan Park, Barangay Gueset and Lingayen Gulf!
* * * * *
SHOTGUNS’ COLLATERAL DAMAGE. The governor’s indiscriminate issuance of shotguns to the barangay kapitans claimed its first unintended collateral damage though not totally unexpected – a 15-year old boy now lies gravely wounded.
To this day, the provincial government and the provincial police have not impressed upon the shotgun recipients that the handling of a shotgun can be more dangerous than handling a handgun. A shotgun makes a bigger target out of anyone precisely because of the size of its barrel. One cannot miss within a distance of 10 meters of the target, and for this reason, the police, the trained, responsible and licensed gun-owners keep long firearms under lock and key – and bullets kept in a separate place (both safely tucked away from the knowledge and reach of children).
In this instance, the Alaminos barangay chair thought she had safely kept the shotgun away from her family not realizing one fatal omission. She kept the shotgun loaded!
The barangay kapitan (whom I can safely assume is no different from most of the recipients of the free shotgun) must have thought that an unloaded shotgun would be useless hence it must always be loaded for emergency purposes! Of course she didn’t know any better, including her policeman-husband (as ‘shotgun buddy’) who was officially tasked to keep an eye on the shotgun. If this could happen to this couple, one can imagine the horrendous risks that 1,330 ‘loose’ shotguns in the homes of kapitans pose. (The shotguns are deemed ‘loose’ firearms because these are in the hands of unlicensed persons).
Did the police teach them the proper handling? Obviously not, otherwise, one child would not be suffering today. What the police simply did was to train the kapitans how to load and shoot. Did the police or the provincial board or Guv Spines issue guidelines on how to handle the shotguns for safekeeping and when are they authorized to use it? No. But PD Smiley Barba says a “buddy system” will do the trick! (Mr. PD: your perfect buddy system – a cop for a husband and a kapitan for a wife – just collapsed right before your very eyes!).
There are more accidental shootings waiting to happen all because the shotguns have been placed in the wrong hands! Long lethal firearms should be kept under lock inside a police station, not in a home in a peaceful barangay. Unfortunately for the province, we cannot expect anyone in the provincial board to instigate an investigation in the mishandling of the shotguns. Not even PD Smiley Barba can be expected to consider ordering his police chiefs to recall the shotguns and keep these in their station’s custody he even wants barangay tanods to be armed!
And Guv Spines so far appears as one not likely to admit he seriously erred when he ordered the purchase and distribution of the shotguns to the untrained kapitans. I only pray that Guv Spines will soon forego his pride, admit to the mistake and save lives! If he does, am certain he will be thanked and praised profusely for his prudence.
(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/
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