A longing for a healthy way of life

Stores and commuters were irked” by the pedestrianized Colon Street and the heritage district of Parian in Cebu City  last Saturday, Cebu Daily News noted yesterday.

The complaints came from commuters who were inconvenienced and entrepreneurs who lost expected revenues. Theirs are natural reactions borne of lack of awareness of the relationship between a healthy way of life and a degraded environment, and perhaps also, of lack of information about the event.

Jack Jakosalem, the chair of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom), showed his exasperation when he said that “if environmental groups wanted to do this on an experimental basis and get the understanding of the public, I think they lost.” He added, “Imbis makasabot ang publiko sa environmental concerns nila, karon nasuko na hinuon ang mga tawo nila.” (Cebu Daily News, 09/26/11)

His public declaration is rather surprising as Citom approved and helped plan the event. At most, it is a sad commentary about the environment as still way beyond the radar screen of our policy-makers’ vision.

Is the environment not a concern of everyone, especially by the government, and not just the advocates?

The bikers, students  and pedestrians were clearly excited. Posted Christine Joy  Go in the Stop Cebu Flyover Movement website, “The whole area was peaceful and students even came to experience the rich heritage of Cebu. It is an eye-opener for Cebuanos to seriously think about what is best for Cebu and the preservation of its heritage for the future.”

There is nothing wrong if people  desire a quality of life that we deserve to have—for a day at the very least.

If we go into the blame game, it is certainly not the Road Revolution proponents, organizers and citizens who are at fault.  They, like the commuters and businessmen who complained,  have every right to yearn for a safe and open space and breathe unpolluted air, which they  had a taste of only on June 12 and last Saturday. The DENR EMB tests attest that the air quality on June 12 along the car-free Osmeña Boulevard was rated Good, a rather rare occurrence nowadays.

The proponents should  be commended for  continuing  the campaign, despite the very visible lack of support from public officials, except for a few.  It is downright depressing to have to petition government every time citizens desire to claim the inherent  right to life and health, which the government as duty-holder, should provide everybody, at all times.  Yet, they  persist.

Cebuanos are clearly articulating their aspiration for a healthy lifestyle, with definite choices for sustainable urban mobility that veer us away from fossil-fuel dependency. They long  for public parks, safe and wide pathways unobstructed by vendors and lest we forget,  to exercise  their constitutionally-guaranteed-but-oh-so-violated right to inhale clean air.

The Road Revolution and the Stop Cebu Flyovers Movement members visibly engage government to craft programs that point toward the direction of sustainability and climate resiliency. Citizens are even  presenting short- to long-term solutions. To ease traffic, for instance, among  the solutions, “immediate and at no additional cost”  are using school bus/bus to work, by school/company (destination)  or by neighborhoods (point of origin/return. No pick up or unloading except at designated jeepney stations, habal-habal and tricycles are linked to jeepney stations, but must be distanced from the main street so that their actions do not disrupt or disturb traffic flow, empty taxis are not allowed to roam the streets during peak hours, taxis wait at designated terminals, and are called by users, Cebu-wide, multi sectoral education drive for a cooperative approach to road use and  strict implementation of no parking on sidewalks.  (www.facebook.com/groups/stopcebuflyoversmovement/?notif_t=group_activity)

Stakeholders  refuse to pretend that they are helpless in the face of Metro Cebu’s urban decay  .  They are making a stand for sustainability and on the prudent use  of publicly-funded programs, clearly opposing those that do not address the social and environmental ills that afflict our society.

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President Benigno Aquino III signed last week the Open Government Partnership before the international community. For  Budget Secretary Florencio Abad , the presidential act  “signifies the Aquino administration’s commitment to greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation in government.”

The DBM is one agency which walks the talk about transparency. It should be commended for its website which fully discloses the financial state of the government. Check out www.dbm.gov.ph if you want to know the internal revenue allotment of  your local government unit and the allocations that the public officials, including senators and congressional representatives,  have received. This is the first time in decades  that DBM has become genuinely transparent with the financial transactions of the State.

Public participation, Information technology  and the transparent policy of the national government promote accountable and responsive governance. Politicians’ false sense of entitlement to public funds is no longer viable. As Joel Lee of the Stop Cebu Flyovers Movement would remind the officials, “We are already in the post-wang-wang era. It is time for public officials to  ensure  a no-nonsense implementation of our laws and listen to the voices of the people.”