How many laws do we have? I did not bother to google it, not because of indolence but I know we have a lot. A lot that I thought we do not need lawmakers anymore, only strict implementation of our existing laws.
Thanks to my legwork about the smoking ban campaign of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), I found out that we already have a smoking-ban law since 2003. But the law has been neglected that according to the Philippine Global Tobacco Survey in 2009, 28% of Filipinos aged 15 and over, or 17.3 million are smokers.
I could not blame the apprehensions of AB students who were asked about their opinions regarding the reinforcement of smoking ban in public places led by the MMDA. Many thought that the revamp of the outlaw would be another failure-in-the-making.
The government agency has already implemented other restrictions such as no littering, no jaywalking, no spitting, no driving while texting, no speed driving,
The ideas were good but the executions were flawed.
The problem could not be the inability of Filipinos to follow rules for the overseas workers could abide by the foreign laws. However, the hitch seemed to root from our own powerlessness to carry out rules and regulations efficiently.
My teacher back in high school said that aside from our freedom to speak, Filipinos also enjoy the freedom to spit. We could get away with everything we wanted to do, since our laws appeared to be absent anyway.
I could not agree more when she said that our ‘ningas cugon’ attitude could be one of the reasons why we lack the means to implement and follow rules and regulations.
Ningas cugon refers to the superficial pursuit of people to a certain new topic of interest but the attention will eventually wane easily. It could also be depicted as the procrastination of people to address known problems.
Heck, I was not surprised when a student bet that the reimplementation of smoking ban could last for barely two months, lucky are we if it lasted for another 30 days.
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I was home in Laguna for a two-week vacation and was surprised with the changes in our city. It has been almost a year since the last time I went back home ergo, I was clueless that the local government has already employed a plastic-free-metro campaign.
The execution of the plastic-ban policy should have started eons ago long before the occurrence of climate change and global warming nonetheless, I was happy to hear about the plans of having an environment-friendly community, though it was late. At least, an effort is done to rescue the earth in distress.
I am only hoping though that when I get back to my hometown again, the policy has not been neglected yet.
It’s just so funny that we know the root cause of our problems, yet we lack the ‘energy’ to address them. We find ourselves working our butts off when something is too late. Slackers.
Obesity should have prevented long before relentless eating disorder, assigned deadlines should have been met, children labor code should have been laid properly long before the Jan-Jan controversy. Yes, I’m rambling and I know you got the picture anyway.
We have been used to slacking that it became our expertise. We are professional procrastinators then.
Meanwhile, let us give MMDA the benefit of the doubt, may the smoking-ban outlast its predicted two-month shelf life. Let us hope for a three.
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