Too many buses on EDSA

Three things stand out on the situation with the buses on EDSA. One, there are too many of them for the number of passengers they carry. With commuters preferring the crowded MRT trains, most buses carry just about half their capacity at most times of the day.

The second thing is, if the buses can make money on that kind of load factor, the fares set by the LTFRB must be too high. Those buses are also wasting precious foreign exchange used to buy imported fuel if they are operating at such load factor and needlessly contributing to greenhouse gases, something we cannot afford to do.

Third… these buses have the most undisciplined bunch of drivers ever and the chaos they cause on EDSA is costing the rest of us plenty in terms of frayed nerves, lost productivity while stuck in traffic jams they cause and impaired health leading to reduced life span and as a recent study revealed, lower IQ for our children from exposure to all the pollution those buses spew.

LTFRB Chairman Alberto Suansing first visited us at the EDSA Plaza Shangri-La Tuesday Club last year when he was till the head of the LTO. When a club member raised the problem of too many buses on EDSA, he quickly pointed to then LTFRB Chairman Thompson Lantion who also happened to be with us that morning. Little did we (or he) know that in just a few weeks, the problem of EDSA buses will become Mr. Suansing’s problem.

And so we asked Mr. Suansing last Tuesday when he joined us again for the first time since his re-assignment, if he thinks he will be able to carry out his plan to cut the number of buses on EDSA. He smiled and said he is determined to do that if he is kept in his present position long enough. We all know that eventually, the politicians will determine his ability to do the right thing.

Mr. Suansing was a former private sector businessman himself so we asked him why the bus operators are investing large sums of money on new buses to ply the EDSA route given the low load factor. It stands to reason that if business is bad because of the MRT and tough competition from a surplus of capacity, they wouldn’t insist on being there. No one stays in business to lose money.

Mr. Suansing explained that the operators are not using a rational business model. If they are able to make enough money to satisfy the driver and conductor and something to enable the operator to have some spending money in his pocket, they are satisfied. They do not factor the loans they have made to buy the buses. That’s a long term concern and their horizon is extremely short term. I guess this means that whoever lent them the money is not likely to see that money again.

But it is the LTFRB’s mandate to see to it that not only are the routes adequately served but that the operators make a reasonable return on investment. That is why the LTFRB must continually do market surveys where they measure demand for bus seats on particular routes and must match the need with the supply. The fact that there is an excess of 4000 bus units on EDSA means the LTFRB had been remiss in its duties all these years.

Actually, Mr. Suansing told us, there are areas in the provinces where bus operators are charging less than half the authorized rates because of competition. That proves to me the rates are too high because operators can charge less and still have enough to continue operating. Something must be awfully wrong with the LTFRB rate setting ability. He didn’t say it outright but I could read between the lines that politics and even the usual bureaucratic corruption were jointly responsible for the failures of LTFRB.

I sense that Mr. Suansing is a no nonsense type of person who took on a public service job in the belief that he can make a difference. He knows exactly what he has to do and what he obviously needs from the public now is enough support to give him political cover. Hopefully, the powers that be also give him enough support in the face of an expected stiff lobbying by the affected operators who want no change in the status quo.

Mr. Suansing allayed the fears of some bus operators that he will put them out of business. He said there are still many underserved routes in the metro area and the rest of the country. Just look at all those commuters hanging out of jeepneys during rush hours and see the need for a more effective transport mode. He said he will see to it that the operators make money in routes other than the overserved EDSA route.

It is not always that we come across a public official like Mr. Suansing and it is a pity if he gets reassigned or is simply canned before he is able to do his job. It already happened to him with his last assignment at LTO. It could happen again at LTFRB just when we are about to see something being done on a festering problem with the EDSA buses.

LTO mess

We took the opportunity of Mr. Suansing’s presence last Tuesday to ask him about the reported discovery of a criminal syndicate involved in anomalous car registrations imbedded right at the LTO head office. The PNP reported last week that the LTO is losing at least P250 million yearly to a syndicate illegally registering smuggled and stolen vehicles at the LTO compound in Quezon City. Worse, a criminal syndicate has been allowed to take on a very government function of registering motor vehicles.

Mr. Suansing said he knew about that when he was the LTO head and was quietly working with the police to deal with it. But he explained it was not easy to ferret such scams within the bureaucracy. And even if you are able to identify the employees involved and catch them red handed, you can’t just fire them… they are protected by civil service law.

Still, I find it incredible that the LTO had been headed by a number of former high profile police officers and is currently headed by no less than a former PNP Chief and DOTC is headed by another former PNP Chief and the criminals within the organization managed to carry out their nefarious business under their noses. How could they have been that clueless or worse, helpless? Ano sila… mga pulis patola?

Carnapping and car smuggling have been big problems and it is horrible to find out the LTO was all the time part of the problem when it was supposed to be our first line of defense. How can we ever trust our government for our security?

Mr. Suansing said he first realized he had a problem when he noticed that the steel the syndicate was using for car plates was genuinely LTO’s. But there were enough discrepancies noted in the records for him to raise an alarm and a plea for assistance from a special task force in the PNP. He credited this same task force for finally uncovering the syndicate. But, he said, firing the culprits and making sure the syndicate is unable to imbed itself again at the LTO are still realistically, rather iffy.

Well, the present LTO chief will not do his reputation as a former top police officer any good if he is unable to finally put a stop to criminal elements infesting the LTO. And unless he is able to do that right away, Ate Glue will have no basis for the confidence she has given all these former police chiefs in DOTC and its agencies. They would have proven themselves incompetent in the performance of the civilian functions they were entrusted to do.

This syndicate at the LTO is simply too embarrassing for the DOTC Secretary and the LTO chief. They have to redeem themselves quickly or do the honorable thing the Japanese officials who have a sense of shame would normally do in situations like this.

Dropouts hold up

Dalawang holdaper sa bangko:

Holdaper #1: Yehey! Mayaman na tayo!

Holdaper #2: Bilangin mo na!

Holdaper #1: Alam mo namang mahina ako sa math. Abangan na lang natin sa TV Patrol kung magkano!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. This and some past columns can also be viewed at www.boochanco.com