The City of Dumaguete will be facing two tough challenges in the coming months. In August, it will implement the law requiring motorists to wear crash helmets. In September, it will ban smoking in public places with the effectivity of the Anti-Smoking Ordinance.
These are two measures that may or may not have a political backlash against the administration.
Nearly every home in Dumaguete has a motorcycle. Some homes even have two or three. Surely, the Helmet Law would mean an added expense on the part of households earning meager incomes, especially because the motorcycle is used not just by one rider but by three or sometimes four. Each one would have to wear a helmet. And not just any ordinary plastic helmet like many have been used to. It has to be a helmet endorsed by the Department of Trade & Industry.
The Helmet Law, no doubt, is the most unpopular law in Dumaguete these days. But the City may not be facing a totally uphill battle in enforcing this law because they went to great heights to dramatize their bid to contest the implementation of this law.
It was only last week when Judge Neciforo Enot ruled that this law is constitutional, and that if our politicians want to change it, or to stop it from being implemented, their only recourse would be to go to Congress.
You may recall that the town of Sibulan strictly implemented the helmet ordinance after a friend of the Mayor was killed in a motorcycle accident years ago. Everyone complied, giving rise to a silly scenario where motorists wearing helmets in the Sibulan side would begin to remove their helmets upon entering the Dumaguete City limits. How long did the “strictness” of Sibulan last? Two months, maybe?
The Anti-Smoking Ordinance, on the other hand, is a law that will save people a lot of money, but will cause a lot of inconvenience to smokers.
All smokers and former smokers know what withdrawal symptoms are like — they bring out the most foul of moods in some people. As smoking is an addiction, it would not be as easy to force compliance with this law. Ninety-nine percent of smokers cannot be non-smokers the next day.
If this law is to succeed, the City should have a program to assist smokers who are determined to quit.
But wait a minute…how many laws do we have that are blatantly disregarded in full view of everyone?
Well, there’s the law against urinating in public, the law against littering, the law against jaywalking…there’s also the law against the giving of alms to beggars, the law against selling on the sidewalks, or the law against walking around with no visible means of support (vagrancy)…. That’s only for starters.
The challenge then is not really in starting to enforce the law. It is in sustaining its implementation. And as they say, “It takes two to tango.” If the people choose to be stubborn, they just might someday get the kind of government they deserve.
