Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Domagoso on Tuesday offered a simple solution to clean the streets of the metropolis and clear them of obstructions”•no one should accept bribes.
“Simple, very simple—don’t take ‘tangga’ or ‘gayla,’” said Domagoso—using the street colloquialism for payoffs during the organizational meeting and briefing of the Senate committee on local government chaired by Senator Francis Tolentino.
Domagoso said some corrupt local officials and their minions received the “tangga” and “gayla” to allow street obstructionists to operate with impunity.
He said that bribes changed hands starting with the barangay chairman to the Police Community Precinct commander until it reached the local government agency, in Manila’s case the city’s Department of Public Services.
Neophyte Senators Imee Marcos and Ronald dela Rosa attended the briefing along with Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, National Capital Region Police Regional Director Guillermo Eleazar, and Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Danilo Lim.
The mayor said everybody, whether politicians or individuals or whoever, such as the scheme’s organizers and “bullies,” wanted a “piece of the street, a piece of the enterprise.”
“This drove me to put order on the streets of Manila. Anyway, we have no expenses. In three weeks, we spent only P125,000… P150,000 since we filed a bond,” he said.
With the minimal expenses, Domagoso said the city was able to clean the Recto, Soler, and Juan Luna Streets in Tondo and Binondo districts and the main roads of Dagupan, Blumentritt, Carriedo, Raon and Quezon Boulevard.
“No expenses also on manpower since we have our people from the city engineering and the DPS [doing this],” he added.
Replying to Tolentino’s query what prompted him to launch a massive clearing of Manila’s streets”•whether to inspire other local government units or to fulfill a campaign promise, Domagoso said it was the latter.
He stressed it was a commitment he made to the people of Manila when he was campaigning for the mayoral seat in the last May elections.
“We were already deadset during the Manila campaign. Fortunately, we won the elections,” the young mayor said.
According to Domagoso, when he assumed the mayoralty seat, Manila was then “so chaotic,” saying he had heard of senior citizens falling victim to jeepneys cutting trips for their routes to Divisoria and Cubao.
The reason for the cutting trips at Jose Abad Santos Avenue, he said, was because the entire Recto Avenue from Asuncion to Abad Santos, a total of eight lanes, was closed to Public Utility Vehicles. Because of this, the mayor said he literally “rid Manila of all filth.”
But Domagoso stressed he still cannot consider the city’s current cleanliness and clearing operations a success.
“We are just starting,” he said, stressing the need for a basic law to hold liable barangay chairmen or policemen who have jurisdiction over congested streets violative of the President’s directive to clean them.
Domagoso hopes to sustain the clean-up drive because its absence might result in a “cat-and-mouse race.”
He warned that the moment the clearing operators leave a particular area, the “snipers” will return and lay down their blankets or tarpaulins for their merchandise.
To avoid this, the mayor vouched for the creation of a law that would hold barangay chairmen and police officers liable for failure to clear roads of any obstructions at the very first offense.
He also suggested that police officers, at the first commission of the violation, be demoted.
“The best way to do it, as long as (obstructions) exist, automatic strike one. When it says ‘testing’ or ‘tikim’ (taste), it would only cause confusion. There must be certainty so that we in the local government are following one direction,” the mayor said.
Told that this proposal could be harsh on policemen, Domagoso emphasized that failing to do the mandated task is punishable by law.
Año backed Moreno’s call for such a law, assuring that it will be on top of a Department of the Interior and Local Government memorandum circular directing local government officials to clear their roads of obstructions within a 60-day period.
“I am in favor of that. One-strike policy. There should be a law to ensure our cleanup effort will continue,” Año told reporters after the hearing.
He also clarified the DILG circular should be implemented nationwide, particularly in highly-urbanized cities.