Anti-planking law?!
Author: n.d. a.k.a. nestor / slick master
10.04.2011
05:03 p.m.
At the heights of useless moves turning into a piece of expressions of one’s self, and now had just suddenly became part of the nation’s current events. How about the so-called planking? A move that had been once popularized by the man named Tom Green in 1993, now a resurrected movement by the youth to the extent that such act had just been also used by some activists in their protest?
Since planking had been trending around the metro, different reactions spread like a wildfire around the social networking sites. Thus, emphasizing to the negative ones whom may find it as stupid. Well, this bill proposed by the Quezon City representative Winston Castelo may favor the so-called “”planking haters.” Yes, the House Bill 5316 or known as the Anti-Planking Act of 2011.
What is its primary aim? To sanction those students and student groups who used planking as part of their demonstrations in street rallies.
By the way, in case you don’t know what the hell is planking, it is an act of a person or a group of people lying faced down in unusual locations such as the floors of a hallway/room, streets, stairs or stairways, platforms, or even the very unusual ones like at the stand of the traffic light, top of the basketball court, railings of a bridge, rooftops, or elsewhere. Their position: keeping their hands along the body and outstretched.
What are those sanctions: according to the section 5 of this said act:
The Department of Education in the case of elementary and high school students and the Commission on Higher Education in the case of college students shall draft a universal Code of Student Conduct to carry out the provisions of this Act. Further, DepEd and CHED, respectively shall issue appropriate rules and regulations to effectively carry out intent and purpose of this Act.
How will it be effective? Section 6 will tell you then.
SEC. 6. This Act shall take effect ninety (90) days after its publication in the Official Gazette and in at least three (3) newspapers of general circulation.
Okay, it sounds like a foolish, very silly act, huh? But before you throw that F-word elsewhere or even to this guy who had proposed such bill, let’s know his side why did he done that. According to him, some people whom were mostly parents of the high-school and college students were alarmed by this movement.
Castelo’s statement.
“Parents and teachers have reason to be alarmed if these similar protest actions will have as a scheme and scene otherwise warm and living bodies laid down across street highways as though they were offerings to the gods. The parent in me tells me that this precedent in the case of the this massive transport strike where militant street protesters who are students of various schools have to lie down or serve as ‘planks’ across the road to disrupt what should be normal traffic could just be very dangerous in the future. Life and limb are pretty much at risks here were unbelieving bus drivers or law enforcement authorities might just ram through these warm and living bodies rolled out on highways…I respect the rights of students to express grievances. I learn from them. I recognize the constitutional guarantee to freedom of expression. However, as a parent I can not compromise the safety of rallyist and general public. As a lawmaker we are mandated by our sworn duty to protect everyone’s welfare.”
Now, did that made clear to you? Hopefully, but my take? Honestly, I’m not seeing anything good in this bill. With all due respect to the lawmaker, I know he’s concern for the welfare but I would highly doubt that this one may be executed right away. With the protests regarding that budget cut which for these guys may be an un-motivating factor for them to come to school and educate their minds, it’s not that hard to see why. But it can’t be denied that both parties had faults in this. Since social media dictates the run of the present youngsters, well… that may be a factor why planking became one of the trends nowadays. But sometimes, over-exposure of the thing to the internet is really bad. In other words, jeez! I’d rather see other bills imposing to the society instead. Those ones that the society badly needed.
© 2011 september twenty-eight productions.
