Punchline
What can stop HRIT?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
HAVEN’T you noticed anything about our politicos recently? The responses of our political leaders to crimes that government has been unable to contain range from the sublime to the ridiculous!
First, there was the suggestion of DILG Sec. Mar Roxas to ban the sale of martilyo in shopping malls all because the robbers who got away with millions worth of jewelry used a martilyo it bought from a store inside the mall; and persons wearing baseball caps should not be allowed inside the malls simply because the robbers wore baseball caps that prevented the CCTV cameras from identifying them. Then Manila City Mayor Erap Estrada is considering to ban persons riding in tandem on their motorcycles all because the killing in the streets are perpetuated by hitmen-riding-in-tandem (HRIT).
Someone ought to suggest the establishment of a Brain Transplant Center that will cater to mandatory brain transplant for politicians who are pea-brained!
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PERFECT FORMULA. Seriously, Mayor Erap, he who styles himself as the man for the masa, unwittingly seeks to deprive families of lower income households of full use of their motorcycles, now considered as the family’s cheapest and most practical unit for mobility that it can own. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see parents holding 2 toddlers between them as they travel from their homes to wherever. On their motorcycles.
In short, riding-in-tandem has become a necessity everywhere in the country. How can anyone even think of depriving thousands of families of that “luxury” to be able to travel in tandem only because a handful of criminals have adopted their ways?
Riding-in-tandem is not the source of the crime. Similarly it’s not the gun that kills, it’s the person that uses the gun. The practice of riding-in-tandem may have become the perfect formula for a perfect crime only because criminal minds have learned to use it for criminal purposes.
Note, it is the combination of the use of motorcycles (for easy getaway) and the law requiring the use of crash helmets preventing easy identification that make the cottage industry for guns-for-hire lucrative. The riding-in-tandem only points to the use of a helmeted accomplice to make it easier for the triggerman to make the kill.
So hitmen will now likely always turn to motorcycles for its high mobility and because the crash helmet law has conveniently provided the added protection not to be easily identified, with or without an accomplice (as tandem riders). Recall that before the law on crash helmets was passed, killing by HRIT was unheard of, and so was bag snatching in the streets.
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REAL SOLUTIONS. To stop the murders in the streets will not be easy because we are dealing with criminal minds that make it their business to be one or two steps ahead of the law. There are effective and rational steps, and one of them is not a ban on motorcycle tandem riders or requiring gross markings on crash helmets.
One is for the government to revive the plan to make RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) registration mandatory for motorcycles. It will be recalled RFID was proposed for quick identification of ownership of vehicles by law enforcement agents to deter carjacking. The RFID registration will restrict use of any stolen or borrowed motorcycle by a criminal. Even detaching a plate number will no longer help them. I recall that the objection to it earlier was the thought of the likelihood that scumbags in the PNP and LTO can use the portable RFID reader for criminal purposes. But doesn’t the use of guns by our soldiers and police pose the same danger?
Then, towns and cities should adopt ordinances that require motorcycle riders to use only headgears that do not cover faces when driving through their main streets. If riders insist on their crash helmets, traffic enforcers should be empowered to demand their removal on sight, and check their credentials. This ordinance will actually be welcomed by local motorcycle riders who find wearing the crash helmets uncomfortable. This ordinance will make the installation of CCTV cameras in public areas useful, finally.
And since barangay residents are the potential targets, barangay tanods must be trained in crime prevention activities, including alertness towards presence of strangers in their communities.
Then there is something that both the PNP and the BJMP hierarchy can do but curiously have not mentioned it at anytime. Clearly etched in the minds of the public are the images brought to the screen by the 2013 movie “On the Job” that starred Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Joel Torre and Joey Marquez. While I have not heard any policeman or jailer confirm or deny the realities depicted in that movie, the streets are rife with talks that indeed, hitmen from inside our jails, are discretely used by prison and police officials for their murder-for-hire racket.
There lies the all-purpose solution to HRIT! But will the PNP and BJMP care to break the guns-for-hire syndicates operating from inside our jails? Hmmm.
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DREDGING VS FISH PENS. Dagupeños can feel assured that city hall this time is not taking the flooding in the city’s streets and barangays caused by monsoon rains and typhoons lightly. The plan of Mayor Belen Fernandez to start regular dredging operations along the Pantal River is definitely a long overdue step in the right direction.
However, the failure of the city hall (it’s been 6 months and still no recommendation) to act on the claim of the fish pen operators that they own the land on which the river flows is simply inconsistent with the urgency to dredge the river. What good will the dredging do if the fish pens continue silting the river with feeds?
My simple understanding of the city’s fishing ordinance is that no fish pens can be allowed without the explicit permission of the city government. If the city hall has not granted any permission, then it follows that no fish pen should be operating in the rivers regardless of any claim of ownership of parts of the river, a situation that has been negated in law by DENR, a national agency.
To illustrate, can a landowner be allowed to set up a piggery in the middle of a business center in complete disregard of a zoning ordinance? No. So even assuming the fish pen owners can prove ownership of the parts of the river, they still cannot maintain and operate the fish pens where these are not allowed.
The continued delay in the enforcement of the city’s fisheries ordinance by City Agriculturist, Emma Molina, and City Legal Officer Jorge Mejia is slowly but surely eroding the people’s faith in the Fernandez administration’s resolve to protect the river.
Unfortunately for Mayor Belen, the buck stops with her because her two department heads refuse to do their jobs.
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DECORP’S DEFIANCE. What’s with Decorp? It has not disconnected (“terminated”) the service to the electric meter being used by the Citystate Savings Bank inside the MC Adore Bldg. in spite of a clear directive from its biggest customer, the city government.
I suspect that Decorp wants to maintain the electric meter in the area under the name of the city government so it can continue to earn from Citystate without compelling the latter to submit the required building and business permit from the city hall.
Or is it a case of: Hindi takot ang Decorp kay Mayor Belen? Mas takot sila kay Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua, the owner of Citystate?
The fate of Decorp’s electric meter remains uncertain. Meanwhile, Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua, the owner of the bank, and Decorp are having their cakes and eating them too while local businessmen struggle to cope with the city’s rules and regulations.
Fair? Next question, please.
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