Thugs diminish Cebu’s tourism value

Riding on the tagline “it’s more fun in the Philippines”, local government units in the entire archipelago are harping on beauty to promote their cities’ or municipalities’ tourism potentials. Cebu City is one of them. In fact, has an overdose of plans for it. It is sometimes confusing though because after some laudable pronouncements about great beautification drives are made, in a few months later, another one comes along.

To recall, not long ago, Mayor Mike Rama embarked on a high profile thrust of beautifying the streets of the city. Picking a socialite to head the super body added much glitz into an already glittering arena of intriguing developments. Before it can even take off, Hon. Margot Osmeña launched her own more pragmatic “pockets of beauty” program. Whether these two beautification programs or drives were then coordinated, we still do not know. Certainly though, there seemed to be an honest

effort from the city government to put the streets pleasing to our eyes. The questions however are, are we just limiting ourselves on the structural concerns? Are facelifts enough?

These questions are very appropriate and the answers are long overdue. For one, what I saw last week (May 18, 2015) was revolting to some extent. I was at Pier 1 as early as 5:00AM to meet a high school classmate from Negros Oriental who took a passenger vessel. Standing by, I saw tired and happy faces (tourists both foreign and domestic, businessmen, jobseekers, etc.) squeezing themselves into a horde of equally hurrying passengers to speedily disembark. As they disembarked, I can feel their sense of security inside the port. It seemed understandable though as the security guards were so visible and were apparently implementing the rules. As they stepped out of the port, however, the sight was in total contrast. As I observed, the place was cluttered with men dangling car keys to unsuspecting inbound commuters pretending they are taxi drivers. Once approached, they bring these unsuspecting commuters to some parked taxis and forcibly demand a sum from them or from the taxi drivers or both. Rushing to get home or be on their appointments on time, they pay. Ironically, these were happening in a place that is just a stone’s throw away from a police precinct just beside Plaza Independencia.

The same scenarios abound in our bus terminals as well. Some tourists and our brothers and sisters “probinsyanos” have been victims of these hoodlums who are bracing against each other in trying to snatch their bags in the guise of assisting them for a seat and forcibly demanding payments later for the alleged services rendered. Fearing for their lives, they give in. These dispatchers right outside our bus terminals are unforgiving. They prey on both taxi drivers and commuters in every ride they took. Sadly, these bullies have continued to terrorize commuters and have sometimes damaged their belongings as they madly scramble for it.

Apparently, these bullying individuals are everywhere. They are plying their trade even in legitimate spaces where unsuspecting motorists pay legitimately. It is a common sight that as car owners (whether Filipinos or foreigners) park their cars in the city designated areas along the streets, not only shall they deal with CITOM personnel for parking fees. As they leave, “watch your car” boys suddenly appear for allegedly watching their cars. They seem to mark cars that don’t pay and dent them when the opportunity comes. In trying to avoid cost for repairs, car owners succumb to pressure.

Indeed, extortions nowadays are undertaken in many ways. Perpetrators appear in different looks. In purpose, however, they are still one and the same, forcibly extracting money from hapless individuals. These thugs are bold enough to show their faces. Their hooliganism is done in broad daylight and in total public view. Sadly, they continue to thrive and are growing in number day by day. Before they grow uncontrollable, however, the authorities should realize how worrying their presence has been for us. That there is no fun in having them.

So that, to make our city truly pleasing and be a good place for fun, our beautification drive shouldn’t be limited on structure improvements and facelifts alone. It is about time that our authorities shall adopt an iron-handed approach. If they had the balls to evict some vendors (deemed eyesores for tourists) honestly plying their trade on the street, why not take these bullying gangsters (real threats to foreigners and us) out of business.

Left unheeded, we can only guess who gets the protection. The predators? Hope not.