For 2011, PNoy should focus on a few mundane matters

What could have been the most significant event of the year just passed, except that we got ourselves a brand-new Prez? Well, one who seems likable, always grinning and with apparent good cheer as his default mode. He walks towards the cameras in a jaunty manner, albeit like a crab, kinda sideways, right? He always seems so jaunty save when he's supposed to be grave and serious, such as when he has to say things about the Supreme Court, or appeal to media to leave his love life alone, or worse, when he had to deal with the Mendoza caper that resulted in that now infamous Luneta bloodbath — which was certainly the second most significant development of 2010. Other recent major events either paled in insignificance or didn't have much to do with this guy PNoy — no, not the Webb et al. acquittal, not the Azkals' scintillating run that thrust Philippine football into the limelight, and which may have perked up support for the game. Neither do Manny Pacquiao's ring triumphs and Charice Pempengco's gleeful ascent up the international stage relate directly to the fellow who's taken up the mantle of responsibility for turning our national spirit and economy around. Well, the release of mutineers and, however tardy, the so-called Morong 43, certainly had something to do with PNoy. And of course the Catholic Church's continuing hard stance against the RH bill should eventually merit a proportionate response from him, as in: Hey, it's about time everyone who's not blindingly obliged to be Catolico cerrado must learn to say enough is enough with regards certain bishops' perennial meddling in affairs having to do with other than faith. There was one good and determined initiative that our President took, which was to question foreign countries' slapdash manner of issuing black travel advisories. And it got results. Another was signing the national budget on time — a rare feat indeed. But one can say that PNoy has the good fortune of having both the House Speaker and the Senate President in generally cooperative mode so far. And of course the pork barrel practice has been rather savvily attended to. Now that surveys say that most Pinoys welcome the new year with much hope, how does PNoy utilize that emotional capital and avoid squandering all the goodwill? Perhaps a random listing of what might be called national resolutions would help provide a checklist for measuring our President's avowed promise of positive change. If anything, steps in the right direction — relating to perennial sores of governance other than the general one of corruption — might go a long way in instilling more hope through 2011, apart from convincing skeptics that PNoy means business. For instance, his government could establish a first if by midyear, everyone is startled to find out that there is NO lack of classrooms, for a significant change. Every year, we know anyway that more first-graders will be added to our student population. And the Department of Education can always project the ballpark number of schoolrooms needed to accommodate all public students. So why not begin sourcing funds for this essential infrastructure as early as January, and start building enough, or better yet more than what would be needed? It will be one important victory in the march towards refreshed mindsets. Of much less import but still ever characteristic of government's perennial shortage of mid-range vision is the LTO's practice of having to issue what are called conduction stickers — because no license plates are yet available, so that owners of new motor vehicles can only expect to redeem the precious pair of plates weeks or months after registration. Surely a yearly trend has already been established, as to how many new vehicles are expected to be added to the total number of motor vehicles in the country. So why can't all the necessary new plates be ordered early enough? Or is it because the conduction stickers are yet another potential for graft? How difficult is it to make sure that NPA rebels can never again parade with their firearms as an insolent show of force in any town or city, as was done recently in Surigao del Sur? Surely the military and police have enough men to cover every major community, and can be told to prevent such a nose-thumbing exercise particularly when the rebels' anniversary is just around the corner. Notwithstanding what PNoy has said, rather too dismissively, that our peso bills aren't meant to be maps, surely the well-budgeted BSP can be told to make sure that no future bill will be derided for erroneous details in its design and text. Better yet, those faulty new designs can yet be corrected, and fresh bills reissued. A mistake is a mistake, and always needs to be corrected, rather than condoned and jauntily defended. This should apply to textbooks as well. Every Yuletide season, arrival at NAIA 1 becomes such an aggravation. Last month was no different, with already rickety pushcarts being in such short supply whenever two or three airlines disgorged passengers within the same half-hour. As a result, passengers themselves, if they have the benefit of company, have to go out of the baggage retrieval area to collect empty pushcarts that have been disposed of outside. Whoever's in charge of our airports must be told that those pushcarts should always be seen to be not only enough in number, even in the face of multiple flight arrivals, but also constantly replaced by new ones that work effectively. After all, our international airports are among the few in the world that still collect terminal fees. That stretch of SLEX southbound to Sucat and a little beyond was such a mess, too, involving the usual overload of Christmas traffic, and what with repairs going on that constrict the stretch to two lanes, on some instances even one. It was the same northbound from Alabang till past Bicutan. The crawl was aggravated by such slow-moving vehicles that even when a strip would open up, everyone traveling at a normal clip had to take pains to zigzag their way past turtles on an expressway. And the SLEX operators allowed this to happen. The C-5 always gets congested in certain stretches on certain hours — specifically those when the truck ban is not in effect. Ordinary motorists would be very grateful if officials simply consider expanding those truck ban hours, so that smaller vehicles do not have to contend with container vans and slow-moving cement mixers, whose conduct of business can be relegated to midnight and the wee hours anyway. This can also be applied on EDSA and all other national highways and roads in the metropolis, instead of having to impose more stringent number-coding systems all over again. Characteristic power plays in sports organizations also ought to be monitored rigorously. At the first sign of any contretemps that may affect athletes, the President should step in, or order whoever is his designated sports czar to do so. That way, we avoid all the gripes that usually rise after yet another debacle in an international sports meet. Or as in the Azkals' recent case, things can be righted quickly, and the offending officials be given the boot and made to account for whatever anomaly or stupidity is costing our national sportsmen their due focus. All broadband providers should also be strictly monitored, as to whether they are giving subscribers whatever was promised. Telecom regulators don't have to wait until Senate Prez Juan Ponce Enrile blows his top again, and calls an inquiry as he did with regards cellphone companies' intriguing practices. Of course it ensured his re-election, but then he deserved that for being on the ball with regards essential features of our quotidian. These are all non-earthshaking thrusts that can make our lives better even in such small ways. They're doable. They don't even need tons of political will, just a little exercise of foresight and the matter of placing ears on the ground, ever checking to see what unnecessarily aggravates the ordinary citizens' lives. If President Benigno C. Aquino III can make sure to devote some focus on such seemingly mundane matters — but which have been perennial sources of hyperventilation among all of us — it would be even more tremendously effective in maintaining the current level of public goodwill, trust and hope than a mere soundbite like "No more wang-wangs." With simple expectations like this, we can then all cheerily, jauntily say: "PNoyir everyone!" - GMANews.TV