By The Bedan Herald | August 26, 2024
By The Bedan Herald | August 26, 2024
ACCOUNTABILITY is a foreground of public service and governance. Its purpose is to regulate political power and ensure its predictability by restraining its arbitrary nature. Thus, those in power and who serve society should have a sense of responsibility to uphold such core values in governance.
A recent case by the Alabang Hills Village Association (AHVA) and San Beda College-Alabang (SBCA) regarding the traffic dispute went public. Residents are expressing their frustrations with traffic congestion along Don Manolo Boulevard, where SBCA is located. On the other hand, SBCA issued a statement about the car sticker policy of the village—including the dissemination of a certain flyer with statements regarding the authority of AHVA to collect fees for road maintenance and the “NO AHVA STICKER, NO ID, NO ENTRY.”
The implications of such a feud are far-reaching. To students and faculty, these restrictions create unnecessary hindrances to accessing their place of learning. For residents, it introduces an unwelcome source of division in a place of a shared community. Yet, the most alarming point of the issue is the silence and inaction from the Muntinlupa Local Government Unit (LGU). The fact that no intervention or guidance on the part of the local authorities has been extended to resolve this dispute must, therefore, seriously call into question issues of accountability and governance.
"It's a private matter," said Mayor Ruffy Biazon to Bilyonaryo.com, a digital news platform. Although the local government tried to intervene by convening a city council hearing to tackle the issue. However, only one hearing has been conducted to date.
With such an issue, the LGU should be stepping in to resolve it. Even though Don Manolo Blvd. is situated inside a private village, roads are utilized by the public (e.g., residents and students, among others) and should, therefore, be regarded as a ‘public good.’ The gridlock is not just a mere inconvenience: "Where is the LGU in all of this? What measures are being taken to ensure that public roads remain accessible and that traffic management is addressed comprehensively?"
Public roads, like Don Manolo Blvd., are not part of the patrimonial property of each locality; they are part of the public domain, whose purpose includes facilitating movement, commerce, and social contact. In fact, to narrow access sharply does the reverse, creating a bad precedent for doing so, apparently arbitrarily and discriminately, in the worst cases. It implies that the common good should be sacrificed for private interest and that public governance should be short-circuited for the powerful few.
Not to mention, there is an existing issue already with the traffic along Don Manolo Blvd. that has plagued the area for years—such a problem is tantamount to other schools inside private subdivisions or villages—isn't this something that should be collectively acted upon even before?
Governance is about maintaining balance and protecting the rights and needs of all the citizens involved rather than of only a few. Not intervening earlier in mediating this dispute to check on the resulting traffic problem points to a glaring failure to perform the responsibilities entrusted to our local leaders.
As a community, we should not build fences, either literal or figurative, especially along public roads. The LGU should live up to its promise of being the people's arbiter and protector of public interest. It is high time that Muntinlupa’s leaders promptly resolve these kinds of disputes, and create a more responsive traffic management system.
The same goes with AHVA and SBCA; their roles extend to constructively engaging the need for a compromise that must address the needs of all stakeholders: residents, or even the Bedan community.
Volume 30 | Issue 1