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Scout councilors in Baguio act on student fare discount, other concerns

BAGUIO CITY (Oct. 10) — What the regular councilors may have failed to address right away in their regular council sessions had been what the girl and boy scout councilors approved on first reading when they took responsibility of governance today.

The implementation of their resolutions will depend on the regular city council whether or not they will adopt this for enactment of appropriate mesures, a city hall insider said.

One measure they passed is a proposal by Scout Councilor Sheila Marie Magat. The Scout Council approved a city resolution requesting the Department of Transportation and Communication Cordillera Administrative Region (DOTC-CAR) to grant the students fare discounts during Saturdays, Sundays and during official holidays.

The discussions on whether or not to pass the resolution were very serious, though not necessarily prepared for such serious discussions.

One of them argued that the regular council did not pass a similar proposed resolution that the Scout Council should not approve it. Later he said it was pending in the city council.

The records proved the scout councilor wrong. In July, the city council passed Resolution No. 254-05 authored councilors Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., Leonardo Q. Bayan, Jr., and Rocky Thomas A. Balisong asking the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to reconsider its memorandum circular No. 14, which limited the 20% fare discounts during weekdays only. Mayor Braulio D. Yaranon approved the resolution last month.

Another scout councilor was concerned of the drivers’ and jeepney operators’ income, which he said, has been affected by the five-day fare discounts. He said that they lose much from Mondays to Fridays and they have only 3 days to recover their losses. This was negated when a boy scout councilor said that it is not true that drivers would lose anything from giving discounts to students and senior citizens.

These arguments elicited more reactions from their colleagues, who said that as students, they are affected by the denial of fare discounts on such days. They said that like senior citizens who should be extended fare discounts, they remain as students, dependent on their allowances, even on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

They said that most college and high school students have classes even on Saturdays and they also go out on Sundays for other school-related projects.

Magat defended her proposal saying the discounts would help the scholars, their parents and the working students.

One of the scout councilors supported Magat saying that while their adult counterparts may not be so concerned on the fare discount, as students, it is one of their concerns and their responsibility to pass a resolution that would benefit other students and their respective parents.

Restless over the long debates, a girl scout councilor would call for the question. The turnout overwhelmed those in the gallery. The Scout Council unanimously passed the measure.

Other proposals which the Scout Council deliberated on included youth concerns as providing sports facilities in the barangays, increasing stipends for city scholars in the special high school classes, allocating funds for athletes, penalizing those who send young children to buy liqour or cigarettes and supporting the Juvenile Justice Bill, among others.

The session went on with more than a 20-point agenda, intermittently interrupted by a technical failure in the sound system, which often prompts Vice Mayor Peter Rey Bautista to declare a recess. Here, the Scout Vice Mayor and Scout Presiding Officer Joan Rose G. Lampac also declared a 5-minute recess on the first brown-out caused by a lightning and thunder.

They also talked about environmental and community issues as building an access road to the siltation dam in the City Camp Lagoon, the traffic jam caused by traffic lights at the Tabora-Rimando Road intersection, providing street lights to discourage the commission of crimes, sanitary inspection of business establishments, and the installation of clean comfort rooms and ventillation facilities in computer shops, and the planting of fruit-bearing trees, among a few more.

As scouts, they wanted to get involved in clean-and-green projects, and they wanted to systematically launch a clean-up drive every after major events in the city. They also asked Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to designate a portion of the Camp John Hay as camping site.

The young councilors-for-a-day also endorsed a resolution for the extension of a cooperative for the handicap; the establishment of a night market; and providing garbage collectors’ uniforms.

They also discussed abstaining a proposal to support the government system from presidential to parliamentary. However, nine young councilors rejected it.

The council session started earlier than usual today when scout councilors took over deliberating on what to do with various issues that the city and the country are faced with these days.

The scout council members, their presiding officer and the council secretary, reflected the kind of city council they wanted: not so much on politicking, but truly of service.

Like the regular councilors, the girl and boy scouts of the Philippines argued seriously on each of the items in the agenda. Unlike their adult counterpart, however, some of them giggled as they presented their arguments and counter-arguments or when they would splurge, not in the usual official English language at the session hall but into straight Filipino, which allowed them to express themselves better.

The presentations of the proposals were simple and quite forward, without much ado. The girl vice-mayor also did her job well. She facilitated the discussions with brevity and clarity that they almost passed the proposals without too much bickering.

Among those in the gallery is an equally nervous delegation, representing parents, their scoutmasters and some spectators. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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