It’s time to think out of the box!

Last Friday, I was introduced to Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor by my old friend, Government Mass Media Group Secretary Cerge Remonde, at the Casino Español, as they were relaxing there while the President was having dinner at the residence of Mayor Ted Ouano of Mandaue City. Although I had met him before, it was the first time that I really had a talk with Mike Defensor eyeball to eyeball and boy, did I have a lot to say in so short a time. Actually, I was there to attend the wedding of Sarah, the daughter of my good friend Antonio Lozada.

Anyway, whenever I meet people who are literally at the bridge of this ship called the Philippines, I always get to talk about how best we can help our country move forward to a better future. That means, we get to talk about what’s really bugging the Philippines and why for the last 20 years, we have practically stagnated while the rest of our ASEAN neighbors have surged forward to better times, a better economy and a better future.

Rather than give another dissertation of what ails the country, allow me to quote my good friend, Joel Mari Yu of the Cebu Investment Promotion Center (CIPC), whom I interviewed recently on my talkshow. Joel said, "The real problem that bugs the Philippines is that we do not solve our problems." And let me say that I wholeheartedly agree with this observation.

I’m sure that you must have heard that some of the most respected Filipino organizations or personalities seem to be on the verge of asking to bring the country once more under another dictatorship because we are practically ungovernable. But as you probably know, going back to another dictatorship would be like shooting a terminally ill person… that’s no cure at all!

The solution really is a simple one… find out what the other countries are doing and ask ourselves, why aren’t we doing this. For this exercise, let me expound once more about Filipino drivers and why there is no discipline on our streets, except in the Subic Freeport Zone. Pundits have always insisted that our problem is lack of enforcement. But is it really enforcement?

But in truth, I have seen the traffic enforcers of the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM) apprehend the same erring jeepney drivers, who at the end of the year owe the City of Cebu more than P200,000 in traffic fines. Mind you, this does not include how much those drivers owe the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in fines.

Right there and then, we know that the problem is not lack of enforcement, rather it is that Filipino drivers (especially those with professional driver’s licenses) can incur violations day after day, month after month, year after year, without fear of losing their licenses. Whenever they are arrested for a traffic violation, it is merely a "minor inconvenience." This is not so in most foreign countries. In the United States, you can only violate traffic rules three times and you’re suspended for a year.

The solution here is simple enough. Make laws that allow drivers to incur violations only thrice in a year or five times in a year for professional drivers and put these violations into a computer and believe me, when they realize that they can’t drive anymore after those violations, then we shall soon see a new Filipino driver who will observe traffic laws at all cost! Now let us ask ourselves… is this really so difficult to implement? I don’t think so!

The politically correct way of thinking today is for all of us to think "out of the box." However, a good friend of mine quipped, "How can we expect government people to think out of the box when they cannot even think within the box?" There are a lot of smart people under the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) yet I have to see them come up with new ways to instill discipline on our streets!

Whatever it is, there are a lot of challenges out there for us to face and my message to Mike Defensor is, too many of our government institutions, for instance, the LTO or the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), have become inutile in coming up with better ideas for our transportation industry. This is why we’re stuck with the jeepneys forever! I believe in the capabilities of LTFRB chairwoman Elena Bautista, but what she should be doing is to overhaul this agency rather than run it the way it has always been run to the detriment of our future.

I have been watching Mike Defensor especially in crisis situations and I must doff my hat for his being able to pull out of the most tricky situations. However, this doesn’t make him a great man… after all, Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey once quipped, "There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet." What I discussed with Mike Defensor is just one of the great challenges we need to face today… and it is out of necessity that we need to solve them right away.

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Since we’re talking about "thinking out of the box"… let me give you a very good example of this and that’s the proposal of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to cover all the Compulsory Third Party Liability (CTPL) insurance of private vehicles in this country. If you ask me, this should include the CTPL for all public land transportation like jeepneys, buses or tricycles and this would surely be at the very least, a revolutionary idea. But let’s not stop there!

To ensure that our drivers would be more careful in driving their vehicles, GSIS should first give a base rate for all vehicles in its various categories, from small, medium or bantam to heavy vehicles. When that is established, the insurance should be linked to the vehicle, not the driver so that whenever the vehicle figures in an accident, regardless of who drove the vehicle, the insurance paid by the owner should be doubled than what he paid the previous year. That way, vehicle owners would be more careful in driving or even in loaning their vehicles.

Again, let me reiterate that this is a splendid idea from our good friend, GSIS Chairman Winston Garcia, as it would ease the pain and the frustration motorists have been getting from private insurers which give them the runaround whenever insurance claims are filed against them. To be frank about it, I don’t believe that the government should compete with the private sector… but when the private sector practically fools its clients, then the government must come in to give them real competition!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website (www.philstar.com). He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable. Bobit’s columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com.