Mar sets DOTC priorities

Because I had been away since he took office, I have not had the opportunity to talk to Mar and get his take on the challenges of his new assignment as DOTC Secretary. But from feedback I got from knowledgeable sources, he is apparently approaching his priorities with a combination of the analytic mind of an investment banker and the populist urgency of someone who had been elected to public office.

I get the impression that Mar’s approach is a combination of the “broken window” strategy used by former New York Mayor Rudy Guilliani to show government works and Mar’s own Mr. Palengke approach which tries to see things from the perspective of the common folks who use the services of DOTC and its affiliates.

I will not be surprised if Mar has already gone around the various MRT/LRT stations and taken a ride during rush hours so that he could get a good idea of what is right and what needs fixing. During Mar’s tenure at DTI, he essentially managed by walking around the various public markets, the export processing zones and the call centers rather than just issuing orders from the comfort of his air conditioned office. He made his presence felt where it was needed and where it counts.

In the course of walking around this time, Mar would have found out that the MRT/LRT riding public can use a lot of improvements in the way government is providing the service. Many escalators are not working. Station premises are dirty and smelly. Even security of riders can sometimes be iffy. Of course, most important, the crowding in the trains is crying out for more capacity. And both MRT and LRT can stand some drastic improvement too in terms of reliability. If Mar can make noticeable improvements in the basic housekeeping stuff, people will notice and that will be an important contribution to the crying need to show this administration works.

The appointment of NorthRail Chair Jose Aliling as task force head for rails is a good indicator of Mar’s ability to spot professionals with the right skills and experience to get the job done. Mar was reportedly impressed with Aliling when he made his orientation briefing. It would seem that Mar is putting a lot of importance on getting the MRT/LRT on the right track and if he succeeds, this is one thing people will truly appreciate and give him credit for. Aliling recommended a renegotiation of the overpriced NorthRail contract before Ping de Jesus bowed out.

Mar reportedly also brought with him a group of first class finance and legal experts to clean up the mess inherited from Ate Glue and which bogged down Ping de Jesus. I am told that Mar wants to really get going in expanding the capacity of MRT/LRT including the extension of the service as well as acquiring new carrying capacity but needs to make sure the details are in order.

Mar will just have to be careful because the underlings of Ping’s super Usec are still there and because they share his outdated bureaucratic ways of approaching projects, they may undermine his reform programs.

One good sign of Mar’s sense of what’s right is his shelving of the PPP project covering O and M of MRT/LRT. Experts have said that deal doesn’t make sense. If anything is to be included in the PPP program at all, it must involve the winning proponent shelling out capex for infrastructure thus saving government from providing capital. This proposed O and M deal Mar shelved involves government paying the proponent to provide some services to include cost of electricity that may even be difficult to estimate ahead of time.

DOTC is a good test of Mar’s ability to run a problematic but critical bureaucracy. If he can deliver here, he will gain all the credentials he needs for 2016. Of course dangers are there too, in fact all over the place and hopefully, the lawyers he brought in are good enough to protect him from getting mired in questionable deals and scandals.

Hopes are high for Mar to deliver for the P-Noy team as quickly as possible. I have a strong feeling he will not disappoint.

P-Noy and investors

I got this e-mail from reader Joe-Boy Vera reacting to our column last Wednesday.

“Yes, sir Boo I agree that the present pervading good economic climate that we have now is due to the trust and confidence the Noynoy administration enjoys from the international community. But I have yet to hear a major announcement regarding his plan or a major road map going to a full scale development of our economy. The people will surely be glad to hear it in his SONA.”

Hawaiian Air

A number of readers e-mailed me to say that I got what I paid for in Hawaiian Air. I am told that Hawaiian Air’s reputation is that of a cost cutting airline and I should have known what I was buying when I chose to fly them.

I guess I know that now but I still have to explain the circumstances. Simply put, I didn’t get what I paid for. Admittedly, a business class ticket in Hawaiian cost a lot less than a business class ticket in other airlines. But it is by no means unusually cheap at more than double the price of a budget economy class ticket.

My wife and I have been, until Hawaiian, lucky to get good deals for business class tickets. For instance, when we went to London for my son’s graduation from Cambridge, we took Etihad, the flag carrier of Abu Dhabi. It had a buy one, take one promo that made the ticket cost per person even less than what we paid Hawaiian now. Etihad’s service is super first class. Great amenities on board and when we got to London, we even had free limousine service to our London hotel on a BMW 7 series car.

When we flew to the US a year and a half ago, we managed to get a similar promo deal for business class on Delta. It wasn’t as great as Etihad but still pretty good. And the cost of the ticket was less than what we paid Hawaiian too. My wife likes looking for such bargains on airlines and hotels on the Internet and that’s how we save without sacrificing comfort.

I guess we Asians have high expectations when an airline calls its service business class. We have been pampered by the high quality of

 business class service on Asian and Middle Eastern airlines. I love the service of Singapore Airlines, Thai and even Cathay Pacific. Hawaiian is a typical American carrier where everything is apparently simply basic. But that’s not the most important part of my complaint. While the seats and the cabin features are almost ready for a museum, it is the quality of their ground service that made me feel shortchanged... their system didn’t allow me to check-in on line even if their LAX check-in staff is less than adequate. 

Someone from the local Hawaiian office called me last Wednesday to apologize. I just told him that I hope my wife and my 88-year old mother in law who will be flying back in two weeks are treated better by their people at LAX.

Plans

Dr Ernie E emerges from hibernation and sent me this one.

Now that they are retired, an elderly couple is discussing all aspects of their future.

“What will you do if I die before you do?” the man asked his wife.

After some thought, she said that she’d probably look for a house-sharing situation with three other single or widowed women who might be a little younger than herself, since she is so active for her age.

Then she asked him, “What will you do if I die first?”

He replied, “Probably the same thing.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. He is also on Twitter @boochanco