State of catastrophe

For someone born and raised in Metro Manila, Holy Week is always welcomed as a respite from the usual chaos in our streets. With millions of residents leaving the metropolis for hometowns, beaches and other vacation areas here and abroad, it is a rare time of the year when car traffic in metro streets seems manageable.

This shows our normal population should approximate what we have on Holy Week. Our officials should prioritize the move to other growth centers to relieve population pressure in NCR. Our current population and its growth rate are not sustainable.

Government should move most of its offices out of Metro Manila. There is no good reason, for example, why the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should be in Metro Manila. These agencies are better off in central Luzon, closer to the work they are supposed to do. There are no farms in Metro Manila. As for DENR, it should have stopped all those Manila Bay reclamations that will only increase population density and will be a clear threat to the environment.

Urban congestion is bad for people’s health and for the nation’s economy. Pollution levels are very high in NCR giving us chronic diseases that make our lives shorter and miserable.

As for the economy, JICA Philippines chief representative Susumu Ito estimated a loss of P3.5 billion a day because of NCR’s traffic gridlock, during the 36th Joint Meeting of the Japan-Philippines Economic Cooperation Committees in 2017. It must be more by now.

“Metro Manila’s population in 2015 is almost 13 million people; Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite [combined], almost 11 million. So Mega Manila [in 2015], 24 million people. But in 2025, Metro Manila’s population would be 16 million, and Mega Manila including Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal and Cavite would be 38 million. So Mega Manila will be larger. It will be one of the largest cities in the world,” Ito said.

The business sector is feeling the oppression of traffic gridlocks so the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) has urged the government to declare a “state of calamity” in Metro Manila. Ed Yap, chair of MAP’s transport committee pointed out that a calamity declaration should be accompanied by “emergency state relief measures.”

Yap, represented the MAP in a House hearing for House Bill 4363, which seeks to provide emergency powers to the President to address the traffic problem. MAP also wants four traffic managers and a traffic czar.

The only viable traffic czar is the President. Our traffic situation is a catastrophe and anyone less than the President will be ignored by the 17 mayors and the useless bureaucrats at MMDA and even the PNP. There are also self-important bureaucrats at LTFRB and LTO who are not likely to kowtow to a czar.  So, the czar will keep running to the President for help.

If MAP seriously wants to get anything done, they must convince BBM to head this task force. With or without emergency powers, a determined President can get things moving. All those self-important but ineffective bureaucrats are his appointees and he can easily fire them. And he can suspend stubborn mayors, too.

BBM should use Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro as his deputy traffic czar and hold regular meetings on the traffic gridlocks at the Civil Defense Office in Camp Aguinaldo. There should be no hesitation in using the armed forces to support Gibo if the civilian PNP, because of ineptness and corruption, can’t be depended upon to do its duty. This is an emergency, after all, and the public must feel the sense of emergency that only the President can make us feel.

BBM must be ready to impose tough and painful measures. Reducing car density beyond the one day a week coding scheme is a must. Impose congestion pricing. Increase taxes on new car sales. We can’t afford 300,000 plus new vehicles in our streets every year. Singapore’s COE system has proven effective. Ban out-of-town vehicles like in Shanghai. Adequately fund MRT and LRT to efficiently maintain their trains so we have the maximum number running at all times. Encourage work-from-home. The government must be ready to invest political brownie points in imposing painful but necessary measures. Anything less is like rearranging deck chairs in the Titanic.

My early Holy Week

Dr. Ricardo Quintos, the surgeon who performed the stenting procedure to fix the aneurysm in my aorta, responded to my Holy Wednesday column:

“With much appreciation for the kind and generous write up!

“Thank you for allowing me to be the instrument of our Lord for the fulfillment of His will for you to continue with your mission.

“As the mind causes the hand to wield the pen to create wonderful words on the accepting paper, we yield to His will to be able to produce marvelous deeds.

“May this Holy Week allow us to rest and recharge with our families and with the Lord.”

Dr. Quintos reminded me of my father, my mother and my brother-in-law who are all doctors well versed in the science of medicine. They often say that doctors can only do so much based on the state of the science at the moment and they are but instruments of God in healing. The final outcome of any treatment depends on God.

Thank you to all who sent well wishes and prayed for me. Thank you Lord for giving me a well trained and experienced cardiovascular surgeon with a strong faith in Thee. To God be all the glory!

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X or Twitter @boochanco