MANILA, Philippines—Is the campaign against noise pollution still ongoing? Or is it another one of those ningas-kugon campaigns Filipinos are infamous for?
It seems that after the kodakan a week or so ago, jeepney drivers are feeling free again to play their favorite songs as loudly as they want to the annoyance of passengers who may not share the drivers’ taste in music and who also find themselves having to yell at the top of their voices to get heard.
But jeepney drivers do not have a monopoly of ear-splitting music. I have been in two or three taxis where the driver not only wants to play his music as loud as the equipment would allow but he even seems to think I would be doubly delighted if he sings along when his favorite song is aired. It is like being an audience of one in a karaoke room.
Telling the driver to tone down his music—and not to sing along—is a major test of my tact and diplomacy skills considering I am in a running vehicle and have nowhere to go if he takes offense to my asking him to lower the volume and stop singing altogether.
Public utility vehicles are not the only problem when it comes to noise pollution. I have neighbors who would regularly hold karaoke sessions and assault our ears with their bad singing. And you probably have passed by appliance stores where people planning to buy a karaoke equipment or simply looking for an opportunity to demonstrate their musical talent—even if it should actually remain hidden in a vault under 10 feet of soil and should not be allowed to see the light of day—would belt out song after song unmindful of the disturbance they are causing.
Some even return several times a week just to be able to test out the equipment on sale (I thought it was a rare instance when I heard a woman singing like the whole supermarket was her eager audience at the appliance section of Shopwise. But some two weeks later, on another afternoon, there she was again “testing” the equipment. After mentioning it to some people in the office, I gathered that she had made it a regular part of her routine because several others had heard her on different occasions).
Making a pit stop at Petron in San Pedro, Laguna, on our way to Los Bańos recently, we thought of sitting down for a while to enjoy our coffee in comfort instead of having it bouncing all over the place during the ride. But it was hopeless. The paging system of Petron was blaring loud music if it was not making public-service announcements.
And while we are on the subject of pollution campaigns, when will we see efficient and effective implementation of the smoking ban? Many jeepney drivers and passengers still puff away without regard for others. Taxi drivers also sneak in a cigarette while they are in their vehicles. The stink does linger, clinging to the upholstery of an air-conditioned vehicle.
Don’t get caught
This tendency of Filipinos to do what is prohibited as long as they do not get caught is what bothers reader Bob Lopez about road advertisements of Pepsi Maxx declaring “Bawal lang kung mahuli.”
Lopez, though admitting he liked the product being advertised, said he “was saddened, no, I was infuriated by the irresponsibility of that statement (when he saw the ads in Fort Bonifacio)! If this is the kind of advertisement we will continue to see, will we still be surprised by the corruption, infidelity, irresponsibility, and lack of accountability that we see not just in government but also [among] ordinary citizens?”
He said the ad made it appear that anyone can do anything as long as he/she did not get caught. He expressed concern that children might learn the wrong lesson with that kind of statement. “It is selfish and it doesn’t hold anyone accountable even if the ‘secret act’ will affect individuals, groups or society,” Lopez said. He appealed to Pepsi and other manufacturing companies to make it part of their social responsibility to help Filipinos learn the good values of honesty, integrity, and accountability.
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