Unprepared for rainy days

Now that the rainy season is on I hope our local government units are also ready to cope with the challenges that go with it. In Manila, my sisters and I stayed in Remington Hotel at Resorts World and there was a day when it rained heavily in the area, flooding the road between the hotel and Resorts World and preventing my sister and her husband Paul from crossing.

In Cebu last Wednesday evening, my wife got stuck in a flooded area approaching the Mambaling flyover. Apparently many roads not only in Cebu City but also in Talisay and Mandaue cities were flooded because of the heavy rain.  Once again the local government units face the difficult challenges that come with the rainy season.

In Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama has to implement projects that would effectively address flooding in the city by appealing to the City Council to help me make this plan a reality, not just a program.  The city government or all the local government units should realize the difficulty that many residents undergo because their places get flooded and prioritize addressing the problem.

The Cebu City Council should help Mayor Mike stave off the suffering brought about by the heavy rain.

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Traffic in Manila is still bad. Apparently the many flyovers have not helped alleviate the situation so I believe that the proposed flyovers in Cebu would not help ease its worsening traffic.

I believe in the crucial role of cobbling together an urban master plan, one drafted by experts in urban planning and not just by politicians, in solving the traffic problem of the city.  I am hoping that the politicians in our country would now listen to the experts and should stop imposing their will upon our localities just because they were able to source out some funds from the national government.

We expect the City Council to be independent and probably a fiscalizer but not an obstructionist that would oppose for the sake of opposing any proposal coming from the mayor who happens to belong to another political group. I am expecting a more responsible council, one that is  more responsive to the needs of the people of the city.

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I am happy that the police was able to arrest two ladies who apparently are involved in a syndicate of renting and selling rented cars in Central Visayas. I hope that finally the police would break this syndicate.

In the same manner, I also welcome the efforts of the Bureau of Custom in breaking the syndicate who smuggle rice and sugar into our country thus causing our government to lose millions of pesos taxes.  For the information of the officials of the bureau there are names that now identified as involved in smuggling in Cebu and these are basically big businessmen  in the city.

It is about time that the bureau crack the whip, arrest and jail those involved to teach those planning to do so a neat lesson in refraining from attempts to cheat the government of taxes.

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The idea of Annabelle Rama to make a comeback in politics and run again as an independent is no bright idea especially that she is new in the arena.

Running as independent will not help her cause especially now that she is quarreling with some politicians whom she blamed for her defeat.  People will be scared to associate with her because she is difficult to handle. I am hoping that Annabelle would just relax and assess her chances of winning the next time she takes a plunge into politics.