Has the super city vision of Mayor Albee Benitez been embraced by Bacolodnons in ways that they understand?
Has that vision been interpreted to mean more freedom and democratic space albeit in more individualistic terms?
And is Mayor Albee ready to embrace that change in attitude of his citizens even if that would create an unbridled political atmosphere at the expense of order and cleanliness?
Or are Bacolodnons not yet ready to go on a warpspeed travel to the future but have yet to learn civic duties in a city that largely bears the imprint of hacienda culture where the agalon or the amo (master) takes care of the obrero (worker) from cradle to grave?
Last week, newly-appointed acting city police chief Joeresty Coronica included graffiti in his top three priorities, the two others being solving the spate of murders that includes the gunning down of two businessmen and a young man, and the control of illegal drugs.
Murder is one of the eight index or serious crimes as defined by the National Police and is used to measure the overall crime rate in a particular area while the campaign against illegal drugs covered by a special law that has been renewed since the Duterte government.
Vandalism, on the other hand, is a common offense that includes defacing or destroying private property that can also be considered malicious mischief.
While a vigorous debate has yet to start over the spate of vandalism incidents in the city, it must be noted that those who painted graffiti on the walls of private and State properties can be charged for violation of Philippine laws.
For Coronica to include vandalism as one of the BCPO’s priorities is telling in itself: it comes three months after Benitez issued Executive Order No. 25 that created a task force to address the incidents of vandalism and enforce the curfew for minors.
Does this mean the task force, composed of barangay officials and the Education Department, is not capable of enforcing the laws against vandalism?
Or does this indicate that Bacolod residents think like New Yorkers or denizens of other big cities elsewhere in the world who believe that graffiti is part of the community’s artistic expression?
Or is this, after all, a misinterpretation of Mayor Albee’s vision by those who understand the super city concept to be a place where people have unbridled rights?
Or is this simply an affirmation of the Filipinos as people more conscious of individual freedoms rather than taking part in collective responsibilities as part of nation building?
Defacing the walls of other people might look shallow and easy but this action goes deeper than it looks and harder than it seems.
Then again, one could take comfort in Hanlon’s or Occam’s razor.
Or should we?
