Urgent mission for our Congressmen

THE House of Representatives (HOR) will soon hold a committee hearing on a bill filed opposing the move of the Land Transportation Franchise and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to permanently ban provincial buses along EDSA.

While Pangasinan has no jurisdiction over management of EDSA traffic, the ban on provincial buses will seriously affect thousands of Pangasinenses traveling to-and-fro Metro Manila on any given day. A day’s observation of bus terminals operations in towns and cities will easily indicate the amount of unnecessary burden, physically and financially, to Pangasinenses if the ban is imposed.  For this reason, the province’s six congressional representatives must strongly oppose the policy of the two agencies imposing a ban on provincial buses.

Briefly, we submit the following arguments for the position that provincial buses are not the cause of gridlock along EDSA.  It is 1) The unregulated number of city buses that ply EDSA.  2) Failure of MMDA enforcers to strictly enforce loading and unloading rules among city buses on EDSA. (Provincial buses load and unload passengers only in their respective terminals). 3) Forcing Pangasinan travelers to transfer buses in Valenzuela unnecessarily inconvenience them but forced to endure longer travel time and suffer higher bus fares.

4) The use of the Valenzuela terminal for transfers will necessitate fielding more city buses that will load and unload along EDSA to service transferees in Valenzuela. (See # 1&2). 5) The inconvenience and higher costs will compel travelers to opt to travel by car instead.

Our six congressmen must speak up at the committee hearing for the thousands of their constituents who will be made to suffer from the ban on provincial buses.   

Congress ban vs Cardema?

SOME people can be so thick-faced.  Is Ronald Cardema one of them?  He is 34 years old, making him ineligible to represent the party list Duterte Youth in Congress. The law only allows those 30-and-below to run for a youth party list post.  The Comelec, through Commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Marlon Casquejo, had recently ruled on Cardema’s disqualification, a decision that even Malacanang was amenable to.  Said presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo:  “The Comelec is an independent body.  The Palace’s policy is always this:  the decisions of any court or administrative body should be based on facts and evidence presented before them.”  Unless he lied, Cardema being 34 years old is as clear as the sun setting in the west every single day.  Can Congress, citing the Comelec decision, not ban Cardema from its premises?  Always, trespassers are scums of the earth.

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