Flexible business mechanism

CANDID SHOTS – Crime is always a serious problem. We need evidence-based crime policies that are really tough on lawbreaking, and laws that mete stiffer penalties, but are strong on crime prevention. The government should stop adopting alarmist rhetoric in regards to criminality,  instead of directing the police establishment to improve public safety on the streets.
It is true that the fight against crime is of utmost importance. We have to remember that crime rates have been going up at accelerating pace.
If we want to be tough on crime we must first be strict on guns, make gang recruitment illegal, create a new stand-alone offense for rape-murder, robbery-holdup, home invasion, carjacking and other heinous crimes.
We would all like to feel safer at home, at the workplace and in the streets therefore government should increase support for crime prevention initiatives. With the crime rate going up, government should commit to further reduce crime through better programs in youth activity and early childhood education, and address the underlying causes of crime such as poverty, inequality and racism.
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UNDERGROUND ECONOMY – Sidewalk-vending in our country usually is associated with the obligatory manner to survive. The primary reason why sidewalk and ambulant vendors proliferate in a bustling metropolis and other urban centers is unemployment.  The big cities are drowned in density. Job opportunity is scarce therefore many of our countrymen turn to other income-generating ventures in order to survive. Most often you will hear them say, “mabuti na lang ang magtinda sa bangketa kahit bawal ayon sa batas kaysa magnakaw.” (It’s better to be vending in the sidewalks even it is against the law than stealing.)
First, let us look closely at the economic situation. There might be radical shift in our economic development, but it is not enough to improve the lot of our people. You see, there is a very deep infirmity in a society where illegal sidewalk peddling is more desirable than going home to the province to start a new, possibly better life.
For the past years, the problem has become global in scoop and bigger and more serious in developing countries like the Philippines. The root cause of sidewalk- vending and its twin –street-hawking, is unemployment. And sense sidewalk-vending does not make one rich or just being able to provide for the needs of a family that keeps on growing, thanks to the government’s failure to pursue a serious population program the sidewalk vendors remains poor or even poorer. It is vicious cycle, an unbroken curse, you might say. Economists estimate that more than one in three of the nation’s population is living below the poverty level. As a result, many of the unemployed resort to sidewalk vending, which is the fastest way to earn instant money.
Well, we have seen the phenomenal rise of sidewalk vendors and street peddlers not only in Davao City, but throughout the country. Even top-level officials admit that it is not that easy to regulate the sidewalk vending trade, and even more difficult to adopt measures to clear the sidewalks of vendors and ambulant peddlers. .
Local government units, Davao City included, adopt maximum tolerance as unwritten policy on sidewalk vending. This is cascaded to law enforcers who in turn become confused if not frustrated and eventually ineffective in dealing with the problem. In sum, this government’s leniency has encouraged vendors to become abusive and arrogant even to the extent of defying law enforcers and lawful orders.
Still, ironically,  sidewalk-vending, illegitimate and illegal it may be,  contributes tremendously to the country’s economic well-being through what we call the “underground economy.”
Yet everybody agrees that it is high time for the city government to adopt a clear policy on sidewalk vending. There’s so much room for government’s creativity to find solutions for this nagging problem. One good way to start is stop looking at the vendors as potential voters.