As I write this I have guests coming up to Baguio stuck in a horrid traffic jam in Tarlac due to road work in Moncada. Aside from the fact that the road has been worked on for a year or more which seems to be at snail’s pace,

one would think that for holidays and heavy traffic that comes with them some sort of accommodation for road users would be done that could work. I am sure some thing may have been thought of and done but it was not successful for neither being well-planned nor fully thought out. I knew better and avoided passing there but the uninformed, the unsuspecting, the innocent travelers who thought they could go on vacation, are there stewing and simmering. That is not a vacation.

It is time DPWH told its contractors to take the time and invest resources including money into making temporary alternate routes if they cannot work efficiently and rapidly on major highways. Taxpayers should not be tortured by government agencies and their contractors who do not think of the public.

The above situation is not just a phenomenon of today, it has been going on for months now. Yesterday at a funeral in Dagupan, mourners who made the mistake of taking the Moncada, Urdaneta, Pangasinan route to Dagupan were hours late.

Over in Calasiao, road works are causing detours that are not well planned in terms of signage or traffic supervision. You are on your own and left to travel to unknown parts without a clear idea of where you are being made to go.

Traffic is not the only thing that exhibits a total lack of planning. Look at our urban areas that are congested, paralyzed, unenvironmental for the lack of vision of their government officials. They just let things grow and grow, to the point of overcrowding, congestion and unviability. Then they are faced with the difficult and for them impossible, problem of undoing, mitigating, softening the bad effects. Why not be ahead of the game and plan the growth in a disciplined, orderly and logical way. Why not study land use, impose zoning restrictions, pinpoint future development and infrastructure? Why wait until it is a mammoth urban problem staring you in the face?

Furthermore, local government officials have been very cavalier about the configuration of their cities and towns which usually have residential areas, commercial areas, public areas for recreation, leisure, cultural and sports activities. They just do not follow the zoning plan. To the point where land donations from philanthropic civic-minded parties in the past for specific uses, are ignored. One friend was stunned when she went back to her town somewhere in Central Luzon to find out that her grandfather’s donation of land for public use as a sports and recreation area had been sold by the provincial governor. Deeds of donation have specific purposes and if they are not used for such revert to the original owner or the descendants. In this case, an open space which was a donation became a commercial area.

Another obsession of local officials is cluttering up the town plazas with fastfood shops, other government agencies with their own structures, covered basketball courts, auditoriums which entail the use of cement, rather the overuse of cement to the detriment of grass and plants and drainage control of the town. Meanwhile the town plaza open space is gone or compromised as to be unattractive and unwelcoming, a travesty of what it should be.

I think it is about time that there is a law to make local officials conform to urban planning, conservation of open space, keeping the purposes of donated land.

This is a matter of the quality of life for all. Let us make our voices heard on this one in our communities. People, you and me, must take note, take a stand and use our voice.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

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