By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Netizen David Mark Davis Maramba thinks giving discounts on fines imposed on traffic violators, even if they are senior citizens, is “utterly stupid.” He says, “Discounts are privileges, and giving such for violation of laws and ordinances is criminal entitlement.”
Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez, who chairs the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, filed the bill recently to expand the senior citizen discount of 20 percent to cover traffic violation fines. He contends that elderly drivers are no longer that sharp on the road and sometimes make mistakes.
I’ve joined the senior citizens club, but I think this reasoning by the bill’s sponsor is quite senile. Elderly drivers who are not sharp on the road should be barred from securing a driver’s license and not given discounts on traffic violation fines.
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“Warla Kidnapping Group.” That’s what the Philippine National Police (PNP) has named the group of nine people busted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) for gunrunning and kidnap-for-ransom.
Interestingly, this Warla gang is composed of transgender women who have resorted to criminal activities since 2018 to allegedly finance their medical expenses for sex change. Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee, CIDG director, said the group has since kidnapped 14 people and collected a total of P4.2 million in ransom.
Kudos to Gen. Lee for the excellent police work that finally put these criminals in jail.
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All the news that have been fed to the media on the day President Marcos Junior marked his 100th day in office last Saturday were recycled. Practically everything – from his foreign policy to the P1 trillion or so investment pledges resulting from his three trips abroad.
Even in his speech before the Manila Overseas Press Club a couple of days before his landmark day in office, President Bongbong merely recycled his most applauded lines in his State of the Nation Address last July and his remarks on his foreign trips. And even then, most of them were rhetoric!
The real news on your first 100 days are transport fare hikes, higher prices of vegetables, the need to import more rice and corn, using up 99.7 percent of this year’s budget as of September, “pork barrel” funds in the NTF-ELCAC budget, the killing of a radio broadcaster – the 197th since 1986, among others.
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What I find the most pitiful claim regarding the President’s achievements in his first 100 days came from his very mouth: “I think what we have managed to do in the first 100 days is put together (a) government which is functional and which has a very, very good idea of what we are targeting in terms of strict economic targets.”
His very words betray any claim of good performance. Putting together a “functional” government is a minimum requirement, Mr. President. And having a “very, very good idea” – however overly emphasized – of what economic targets need to be met does not reflect good governance either.
As the latest Pulse Asia survey shows, Filipinos have a very, very, very good idea of what the country’s biggest problems are, and atop that list is inflation. And the majority of us believe you have done poorly in addressing it.
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