PHOTOBLOGGING: My Worst List of 2008

2008 IS ABOUT TO go and I have observed behind my lens things or people which have caused us great distress and inconvenience. They have rubbed salt on open wounds which we have tolerated for so long being part of our psyche. This series of photos are but eye-openers of how to start 2009 with new eyes.

SMOKE BELCHERS

It seemed there are still many vehicles who defy the Clean Air Act by continually plying the national and provincial roads and city streets belching out black acrid smoke such as this shown above. Photo taken near the bridge in Tinaan, Naga, Cebu. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board have been tasked to monitor and enforce this law by subjecting all vehicles to regular smoke emission tests but their efforts fell well below the expectation heaped upon by the public on them. It's time the agency check on those unscrupulous smoke-emission test centers which may be in cahoots with fixers and corrupt employees.

URINATING IN PUBLIC

Cebu City Ordinance No. 1316 prohibits anyone from urinating in public places which this man is doing on an electric post at Rosal Street, Cebu City unmindful of the vehicles passing behind him. For your info, there are many city ordinances ratified which have no teeth at all.

DRIVING AND RIDING WITHOUT HELMETS

This condition is prevalent among motorcycles-for-hire or habal-habal and they disregard theirs and their passengers' safety by insisting on driving a motorcycle without protection and even denying the right of their passengers to wear a helmet. What's worse, they even have the gall to drive their motorcycle with four or more passengers. I'm sure the Land Transportation Office-7 is not sleeping on its job because I see habal-habal drivers all over Cebu Province doing this thing overtly.

A STINKING GARBAGE DUMPING SITE NEAR TEJERO SCHOOL

Adjacent to the bridge in M.J. Cuenco Avenue, Cebu City and Tejero Elementary School is a small open place which was converted by the school as a garbage dumping area. Residents living nearby and as far away as T. Padilla and Villagonzalo followed suit by dumping also their refuse there. Scavengers would turn upside down packed garbage inside sacks and garbage bags and scatter them on the pathway, the street and the creek. The place stinks and people passing that area would cover their noses or just run. Technically, this area belonged to the jurisdiction of Barangay Tejero but the barangay captain there, it seemed, does not care at all.

ILLEGAL POWER CONNECTIONS

Have you ever wondered why our power bills continuously increase? It's because power utilities would literally pass the buck to us consumers these so-called power losses. FYI, these power losses took on the form of illegal power connections that's happening within our neighborhood like that picture shown above.

BAYANI FERNANDO

BF have overstayed his stay in Cebu like his poster on an electric pole in San Fernando, Cebu would suggest. 2010 was just two years away when those pink (Why does he like pink?) tarpaulin banners sprouted overnight all over Cebu in the middle of 2008. Good for Cebu City we have a politically-independent mayor in the person of Tomas Osmeña; those posters were removed outright without the blink of an eye. BF have not walked his talk at MMDA after all.

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