Mind the Gap Communications

[Published on The Philippine Star on 8 April 2022] It’s summer once again, but this is no ordinary summer. It is the first summer after two long years of being locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Surely, all Filipino families are already planning a Holy Week or a summer road trip. For families with babies or very young children, the road trip will most likely be the first time that they will have their cutie passenger on board. The Land Transportation Office (LTO) advises these families to invest in a child car seat to ensure the baby’s safety. “You cannot put a price on the life of our children,” said Roberto Valera, Deputy Director for Law Enforcement of the Land Transportation Office. “We must always think of the welfare of everybody. Bigyan natin ito ng kahalagahan. Bumili tayo ng child car seat na akma sa weight, sa size, at edad ng mga bata. ” (Let us give importance to this. Let us buy a child car seat that is appropriate to your child’s weight, size, and age.) ~ Read ...

[Published as an opinion piece on Business Mirror on 5 April 2022] Maia was riding in a van with her family one day when the driver suddenly stepped on the brakes. Miguel, her first-born, who was about 3 years old at the time, lurched forward from where he sat. “ Hindi naman sya nasaktan (he was unharmed), but he was literally thrown off of his seat,” Maia recalled. “ Natakot na ako (I got scared). I decided right then to get my child a car seat.” Maia is one of many parents who were early adopters of child car seats in the Philippines, years before there was a law that required it. ~ Read the full article by Leah Barona-Cruz on Business Mirror

[Published on Rappler on 2 June 2021] With COVID-19 vaccinations now underway, mobility restrictions could be lifted sometime soon. When that happens, are families ready to go back on the road safely? ~ Read the full article by Leah Barona-Cruz on Rappler.com

[Published as a commentary   on Inquirer.net  on 7 February 2021] That your heart is in the right place matters more than whether you have a big heart. When you are hungry, it matters more that you have food to eat than whether you are having a healthy salad or greasy fries. When you have three children dying every day from a preventable cause such as a road crash, it matters more that you try to bring those numbers down than that you have a road safety plan that pleases everyone but comes 1,095 lives too late, for instance.  ~ Read the full article  by Leah Barona-Cruz on Inquirer.net

MANILA (2020 November 30) - Celebrity mom Jolina Magdangal is appealing to parents to use car seats when traveling with their children, to help stem the still-high number of road incidents in pandemic-ridden 2020.  “ Para sa isang magulang na katulad ko, ano pa ba ang mas mahalaga kundi ang safety ng mga anak natin at mahal sa buhay? (For a parent like me, what could be more important than the safety of our children and loved ones?),” said Jolina in a recent interview , during which she calls for more vigilance among parents when it comes to keeping children safe on the road.  

Typhoon Ulysses (international name Vamco), the deadliest of the typhoons of 2020 thus far, posted a death toll of 67, many due to heavy flooding from the Marikina and Cagayan rivers. Two other typhoons, Quinta (Molave) and Rolly (Goni), posted 27 and 25 casualties, respectively. That's a total of 119 deaths this typhoon season, which is not good at all. But did you know that there have been 118 fatal road incidents in the Philippines since mid-March? One would expect that number to be close to zero during the COVID-19 lockdowns when fewer people were on the road, but it isn't.   Atty. Tony Salvador, a road advocate from Ideals, Inc. , tells us more during this episode of news podcast Teka Teka, a program of PumaPodcast. Atty. Salvador also talks about RA 11229, or the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, which now requires the use of child car restraints in the Philippines. Segment starts at the 6:34 mark: 

There is now a law requiring the use of car seats (also known as child restraint systems or CRS) in the Philippines, and it will be implemented beginning February 2021. But how do we prepare for the rollout? And are child car seats absolutely necessary? Did it have to become a law? Can't I just hold my child in the car? Car seats are a huge added expense. Yes, we are parents, too. We've asked those questions as well. See what else parents have to say. Buckle up your treasures!  is a webinar that sought to make Filipinos—parents and guardian of children, especially—aware of the new law, RA 11229, or the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act, and get answers to their questions.  In simple and easy-to-understand language and visuals, we are taught about RA 11229 and the life-saving science behind car seat use by Atty. Sophia San Luis (ImagineLaw) and Mr. Roberto Valera (Land Transportation Office); and child car seat accreditation and regulations by Engr. Isaiah Dale Lim (Depar...

MANILA, Philippines (2020 November 16) - As if typhoons do not represent enough devastation already, they now come with the extra threat of COVID-19 with every misstep. But a look at the numbers tells us that another old menace—road crashes— claimed nearly many lives as the biggest storms of 2020 have, despite people staying inside more these past months.