Sharip Agwak doubles public pain as people recover from pandemic

Yrong-Yrong City and Province, the whole country, for that matter, still limps from the blows of Covid-19, particularly, the harsh and long lockdown that was over done in 2020-2021.

We can’t keep tab how many Filipinos lost their savings, if not loved ones; many lost means to earn a living. A lot are deep in debt.

Recovering from losses, standing back again on our own feet, is still the main pre-occupation for many. Many are still at a loss where to get their next meals.

Which should also be the concern of our public servants, supposedly, leaders.

Many public officials show awareness of that like those in Iloilo Province where in early 2021, they already enacted an ordinance granting emergency livelihood loans to displaced OFWs, those forced to repatriate and were prevented by the lockdown from returning to oversea work.

There is one exception though, at least, from our immediate experience. And that exception is the city’s number one public servant, yes, public servant supposedly but is acting now like an arrogant overlord obsessed to rehabilitate a chosen few and hopefully, not himself. 

He is Datu Sharif Agwak and his caboodle, better still, ka-budol, Dyikunlu who are the last to know that rehabilitating Yrong-Yrong, pulling it up on its feet, is a top priority.

Yrong-Yrong City and Province must spark a new life for those devastated by Covid-19. The overlord  Datu Sharip Agwak need not look far or conceived of fantastic solutions.

First, start with what Yrong-Yrong already has. Its farms are back blooming with crops and livestock. They need to be hauled off to the city. Schools are back to face-to-face learn ing, jobs in public and private sectors are coming to life anew. 

There is thus an urgent need to keep their mobility. I am referring to public transport to move people and goods efficiently at the least possible costs.

For one, we need to transport people to Yrong-Yrong City to purchase goods or deliver fresh farm produce, fishery products included, to its public markets to draw consumers attracted by their low prizes.

With public markets and Old Downtown Yrong-Yrong humming with life, their lateral linkages also bounce to life.

A booming life in Old Downtown and public markets radiates life as well to drivers of trucks, jeepneys, pedicabs and tricycles transporting goods and people from and to these hubs; cargadores, barbeque cooks, sweepers, errand boys also have their share, whatever, little from the bonanza.

Datu Sharip Agwak now holds the record of defying the DILG circular requiring public consultations to make public transport efficient. That’s the meat of the local public transport route plan (LPTRP).

He also holds another record of lying through his teeth. In media interviews, he insists he convened consultations with “stakeholders”. Pressed by Aksyon’s John Paul Tia to show the minutes of one, he shuttered his big mouth.

Minutes of gatherings show the time and venue, the attendance, topics discussed, and consensus reached, if any, of the convocations.

Datu Sharif Agwak can show NONE.

The only beneficiaries of the LPTRP is Andrew Tan’s AmigaWorld and Ayala’s PestibWok. Nine out of 29 routes not only pass through but, their gratitude to Sharip Agwak —they terminate there, lining-up for passengers to come aboard.

Life, the cash registers of MegaWorld and PestibWok, and those of their tenants, as result of his magnanimity, ring busier and louder as income shot up through outer space 100-200 times.

That magnanimity of Datu Sharip Agwak, incidentally, translates to slump in sales for SM City, Terminal and Jaro public markets, and Downtown area, down as low by 60%  according to vendors of Jaro as interviewed by Aksyon Radyo. 

That magnanimity displayed by Datu Sharip Agwak to AmigaWorld and PestibWok translates to costlier and longer travel of commuters besides.

That magnanimity betrays Datu Sharip Agwak’s single-mindedness — all glory to PestibWork and AmigaWorld no-matter-what.

So obsessed that he is as to make the lucky pair happy but ignoring the inconvenience, terrible sufferings even, of his own people like residents of Lapuz, Lapaz and nine barangay in Mandurriao District who were shut off from the PUJ route since June 12 when Sharip Agwak rushed to enforce his LPTRP.

Transport modernization, you say, Datu Sharip Agwak? 

Its regression, bwisit even as city residents shut off from the PUJ route, curse today, as they must travel longer at three-fold the cost.