DU30: Pushing for the BBL to fruition!

President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte certified as urgent the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to enable Congress to pass it before session adjourned yesterday.The certification allows the legislature to disregard the three-day rule and pass the measure on second and third reading on the same day. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced during an event at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame saying, "The Office of the Executive Secretary (certified) as urgent both versions of... the BBL pending in both the House of Representatives and Senate."

Meanwhile Sec. Roque said, "The differences between the two versions of the BBL would be later threshed out by lawmakers in the House and Senate." Clearly the Office of the President is showing his grave concern for the approval of the BBL as it is a campaign promise of his. However, there is the issue and the differences between the two versions of the BBL, one in the Senate while the other is in the House of Representatives. Until and unless these differences are clearly ironed out, only then can the Legislature present a unified BBL bill for the President to sign into a law.

Meanwhile, the senators, particularly Senate President Vicente Sotto, and Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, were still writing amendments to the BBL.After its approval, both chambers will immediately form the bicameral conference committee on the BBL to reconcile the conflicting provisions of their versions of the BBL measures. When it is reconciled, only then can they send it to the Office of the President for his signature.

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The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has granted "original proponent status" to the two-kilometer Skytrain monorail project of Infracorp Development Inc., the infrastructure company of tycoonAndrew Tan'sAlliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), that will connect Fort Bonifacio in Taguig to Makati. What's happening to our nation today? Why can't we come up with a master plan for our mass transit system? It seems that the DOTr is coming with all sorts of mass transit system, when it would be best for our nation to come up with a common mass transit system?

Kevin Tan, Infracorp president, revealed in a speech, saying, "We laud the government's quick action to the proposal. This is another clear indication of the government's serious commitment and focus on infrastructure development."The P3billion Skytrain monorail project will use automated cablepropelled monorail technology, reducing travel time from uptown Bonifacio to MRT-Guadalupe to only five minutes, at no cost to the government. Wait-a-minute, didn't we just hear of the DOTr suggesting to use cable car technology as proposed by Sec. Arthur Tugade?

We learned that the project would also make provisions to interconnect with other transport hubs operating within the area where the monorail passes through. It is seen to benefit around 60,000 to 100,000 commuters every day.But then, this mass transit system has never been tried here in our country so whether we like it or it, we will be experimenting on this system.

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Until now, the 11- car pile up in the Marcelo Fernan Bridge is still the top topic in many coffeehouses in Cebu simply because it wasn't really an accident that wasn't preventable…rather it was an incident that could easily be avoided by a careful driver. But then, many drivers simply do not understand the simple rules on the road. Courtesy is one serious flow that Cebuano drivers just do not care about. Road courtesy is simply lacking on our streets in Metro Cebu and I dare say that it is high time for us to learn about the rudiments of road courtesy.

Mind you, our friends who live in the US do not even want to drive here simply because they get scared that motorcycles simply scoot from either left or right of their vehicles without them knowing it. At this point, the challenge is for the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to come up with a plan or proposal wherein motorists would allow three cars to cross the street then stop in order to allow another three cars to cross. It is a simple way of implementing it, but can the LTO do this? I doubt it. But I dare our LTO executives to come up with something similar in order to teach our drivers the importance of road courtesy.