Baguio Insider

The curfew for minors is back to 9:00pm. That means those puny members of the street gangs masquerading as fraternities can perform all those little criminal acts under the cover of darkness. Not just vandalism, but physical violence, too. Of course the move to raise the curfew from 9:00 to 7:00 p.m. was experimental, but the city council should have had more balls and made it permanent.

Lack of police manpower to catch violators should not be an excuse. After all, one cannot hope to catch EVERYBODY. But the existence of that law, and its occasional enforcement should be hovering over these little criminals’ heads.

May I suggest that spray paint be treated like prescription drugs? That there should be a permit or requisition issued by teachers to buy them or something? Because my city is being spray-painted all over with coded messages by these gangs. Or treated like illegal drugs perhaps, so that it be a crime to carry them around outside the home or school. If Singapore could outlaw chewing gum …

Come on, Mayor Bautista, your campaign promise was that you were going to clean up Baguio. Start by teaching the youth to be good, law-abiding citizens. If it means restricting their freedom of movement, then let it be so.

You can also require all the schools to provide lockers for the kids to leave their stuff in so they have no excuse to be carrying ‘art materials’ all around town. This will also help prevent the stunting of the physical growth of all the little elementary kids lugging around backpacks as tall as themselves. How many classrooms in Baguio provide lockers for the students?

Also, all this clearing the sidewalks of vendors is a big fat lie. They’re still there! I know, I know, they’re just trying to earn a living. But so is everybody else! What makes the illegal vendors so special that they can take over city sidewalks?