RP’s only way out after 108 years

By Gerry Garcia

A MOVE recently taken by traffic authorities here requiring all tricycles on the road to be equipped with rear lighting systems, especially at night, seems to be making no headway.

A motorist on the highway trailing an unlighted 3-wheeled car has not stopped facing the horror of suddenly plowing into the hapless matchbox ahead.

Some motorcycles too, including pedal bikes, are seen plying the open road without lights in the dark of night.

There have been a few reported cases of night accidents involving trikes but the unreported ones are probably more because they happen under cover of night.

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Since our highways, provincial and national, are often narrow, and  considering the overwhelming number of vehicles using it, speed and smoothness of traffic flow are imperative . . . we can see why the authorities are banning the slow-moving trikes from the highway. But in spite of it being the standing law up to the present, we still see these trikes hogging the lane and needlessly limiting the speed of the 4-wheeled vehicles behind them.

Even in areas broad enough to allow an outer lane, the illegal trike drivers who are using the highway on borrowed time only continue to hog the lane instead of moving to the outer lane to let the car behind them pass.

This vehicular malpractice is prevalent even on the expressways where the slow-moving car hogging the fast lane refuses to move to where it belongs — the outer lane.

And it’s no secret that, despite highway patrol cars on the beat, this accident-prone practice of illegally hogging the fast lane continues unabated.

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In the meantime, while the highest official post in the land, – the presidency, continues  to draw applicants from unlikely sources, like filmdom, because they have both popularity and the money, including the support of perpetual opposition losers wanting to be in power too, there’s incident move today from the sober sector in the government which is gaining increasing  popular support . . . to change our presidential bicameral type of government into a unicameral one through charter amendments.

This move would entail the abolition not only of the Senate but also of its lower counterpart — the House of Representatives.  So there’s no point in the senators’ hitting the ceiling.

The main point of contention between the two sides favoring the Cha-Cha, however, is the way or manner through which the charter change is effected. Constituents assembly is preferred because it’s faster and much less expensive, compared to Constitutional Convention which is, not only financially draining, but probably more conducive to political inroads.

The proposed shift from presidential to parliamentary government especially of the federal type appears to be the last resort of this Third World Republic of ours to catch up with our developed neighbors in the Southeast Asian neighborhood and provide more meaning to our so-called 108th year of independence.

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