Are you authorize?

At the back of the City Hall, this sign was hanged. What does it mean? Only authorize personnel are allowed to smoke? Holy, Piguk! Maybe I just miss something.

Holy Criminality

Oil and water won’ t mix. Maybe the same through with holiness and criminality. Not in Butuan. Possibility happens here. Nothing is impossible in Butuan.

Take a look at Barangay Holy Redeemer. It’s just few blocks away from the city hall. The place is best known for it’s church- the Mother of Perpetual Church. The solemn and the most holy place of worship is in the midst of the barangay. When one hears the words- Holy Redeemer even if he’s not from Butuan, first thing that comes in his mind is the place’s holiness. But behind this solemnity and tranquility, criminality in this place is rampant. Philippine National Police (PNP) records show that Holy Redeemer has the highest criminality. Barangays Ong Yiu and Tandag Sora come only next. These places are PNP’s priority to implement its customize anti-criminality action campaign.

Holy Redeemer residents insist that their place is safe. My baker friend agreed. He said, “in Holy Redeemer you can rest in peace”.

2D- Discipline and Disease

Many Butuanons are too hard headed to follow traffic rules. No matter what and how many signs and warnings are posted- they won’t give a damn. Simple rules seems so hard to follow. This becomes a disease.

That’s why we won’t progress.

Butuan Forum Bored

Yes, Virginia, Butuan City has an official forum board. This link will bring you there. Please take note- OFFICIAL. It has a gov.ph domain. We assumed that there are City employees (probably, IT Department or whatever) maintaining this forum. These employees are certainly paid from taxpayers money.

At first glance, one would be happy to know that there is such kind of facility for an ordinary citizen to discuss or give feedback to its government. The forum is a venue where a citizen can exercise his basic freedom of expression. This is indeed an excellent service by any government can provide.

While scanning the forum board, you’ll be happy to know that it seems there is an on going lively discussion. Just by seeing the number of pages that are available for viewing, one would conclude that the forum board served its purpose. In fact, the whole front page has full of discussions. Until, you closely examine it.

The site is full of spam and garbage (just like the City). It has been there for months. The maintainer did not give a damn cleaning or upgrading the system to prevent more spam. It is the filthiest place to visit where porn, buying viagra or seeing Paris Hilton or Britney Spears in nude can be found.

Do you think the people in the City Hall did not notice this? I doubt. They are just too lazy or just don’t give a damn. Holy cow! This is where my hard earned money goes?

Garbage speaks for itself

One of the common sights in the City is uncollected garbage. The picture above speaks for itself. The garbage was dumped at the back of the public market. It was Saturday- a market day.

If simple garbage collection cannot be done, how much more for a bigger task? Come’on, let’s stop talking about development. How about focusing on simple things like garbage?