Letters to the Editor
Letters to the
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limitation when necessary - Editor-in-Chief.
Wretched pols, wretched roads
The Quirino Highway, or at least its Bicol portion named after a
former Camarines Sur solon whose son reportedly chairs the
Appropriations Committee, has been in pitiful condition for many
years now. And yet the so-called leaders in this province seem to
have opted to remain unconcerned or to just look the other way
while commuters (the ordinary ones, of course) have to suffer or
endure the utter inconvenience, if not risk, along the highway.
What’s ironical in this is that the call, albeit quite late
already, for the highway’s “immediate repair and rehabilitation”
(Bicol Mail, Jan. 12) had to come from certain public officials of
Albay and not Camarines Sur, or from “Andaya country”, where the
pot-holed highway traverses.
But, considering the generally “sorry state” of public highways
and roads in this province as compared to that in Albay, such an
“irony” isn’t surprising at all. In fact, this can’t be considered
an isolated case in a country where government projects are almost
synonymous to funding irregularities and kickbacks. One has only
to look around to see how roads, particularly in the rural areas,
have transformed themselves into “craters” waiting for election
time before some repair (or “patch up”) work, if at all, may be
started.
Other such wretched transportation routes that abound in Camarines
Sur are the Pili-Partido highway, the Bula-Libon diverson road,
the Iriga City-Buhi road, to name only a few. In the remote areas,
the problem may even be worse: either there are not enough roads
constructed or the roads available are more fit for carabaos to
wade through than unshod folks to endure the mud or dust along
their way to and from the schools, markets or barangays.
But, guess where government priorities tend to go! Look how most
if not all our so-called leaders cling to their pork
barrel, grandstand in public or junket away from Congress or their
offices. Wonder why some politicians would rather hold festivals
than provide efficient and transparent public service.
As a people, we would not mind our politicians having their names
figuratively carved on public roads and edificies or displayed on
billboards. Yet, do we demand that the same officials do
public accounting of all government projects they purportedly
sponsor or undertake?
Or, do we, as a people, deserve more wretched highways and roads
such as the Quirino Highway?
MANUEL A. COLLAO, via e-mail.
