A ban is sometimes a sign of bad governance

A government is elected by the people so that it can govern. People need governance so that they can have peace, order and a sense of direction in their lives. The mark of good governance is the finding of ways for people to acquire these basic expectations at the least cost, sacrifice and inconvenience to them. On the other hand, it is the mark of bad governance to simply ignore, dismiss or kill just because it cannot effectively deal with something.

Take the case of drinking and the rowdiness and violence that sometimes proceeds from it during the Sinulog celebrations. The right thing to do would have been to regulate the sale of intoxicating drinks during the celebrations and to swamp the city with law enforcers and socalled force multipliers so they can discourage the commission of violence or react swiftly in case violence does happen.

But that would have required great work and sacrifice so the government simply decided it was best to just ban all drinks and drinking altogether. And that is bad governance if there was one. It is no different from burning the house down to get rid of a rat. Bad governance elected to deal with the consequences instead of seeing why there is a problem.

The same is true with firecrackers. Firecrackers are not figments of the imagination that people carry in their minds wherever they may choose to move. They are physical things with very physical characteristics. It takes physical production to make firecrackers. In other words, they can be monitored, overseen, and otherwise essentially regulated by government for compliance with safety standards. But that requires good governance.

But because governance is bad, and as the result of which the government does not even know where the physical, permanent, and fixed firecracker factories are located so that they can be monitored, overseen and otherwise essentially regulated, it simply choose to ban firecrackers outright. Again this is a case of government dealing with the consequences instead of seeing why there is a problem.

And now that a fire has struck an iconic building and has exposed challenges that needed meeting by firefighters, the government promptly went into its bad default mode and issued a ban on issuances of permits for the construction of tall buildings when it could have simply purchased the required firefighting equipment demanded by structural circumstances and lay down stringent regulations to make sure safety is never compromised. But the ban is the quick exit for bad governance.