Fernando’s first challenge – traffic

Of President Arroyo’s newest appointees, the most welcome perhaps is Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando.

There were a few peeps, to be sure, against the Marikina ex-mayor’s rise to the post. One city resident’s complaint reached the newspapers that Fernando isn’t as good as people think he is, judging from the dirty inner streets of Marikina. But other residents quickly dismissed it as probably a political opponent’s sour-graping, for Marikina on the whole transformed under Fernando’s three terms as mayor from a dark, dreary fringe of the metropolis into its safest, cleanest, most liveable suburb. Such accolades came from Fernando’s own fellow-mayor peers during his incumbency, and from civic groups and national government agencies. Casual visitors invariably marvel at Marikina’s palpable orderliness and progress, compared to its adjacent cities. They can’t all be wrong.

Another chirp, though unattributed in news reports, had it that the MMDA chairmanship should go to an incumbent mayor, like Caloocan’s Rey Malonzo. But that too quickly was dismissed as flying from left field. For, Malonzo said he was not interested in the job to begin with. Besides, Fernando’s predecessors Ben Abalos, Jojo Binay and Mel Mathay were not incumbent mayors when they held the post.

The loudest gripe, though again unattributed in reports, supposedly came from bus and other transport owners who fear that Fernando would be too strict on them. But then, shouldn’t he be?

The biggest expectation of Metro Manilans of their MMDA chief is traffic decongestion. And Fernando, upon taking his oath of office last weekend, immediately met with the region’s 17 city traffic police chiefs to find out if his ideas would work. He humbly told reporters afterwards that transport operators need not worry because "I am also afraid I may not be effective." But he has earned a reputation as a leader who would damn the torpedoes to meet his objective. And Metro Manilans he would do just that, the way he did for nine years in Marikina.

City planners have long mouthed the Three Es – engineering, education, enforcement – to ease Metro Manila traffic. MMDA managers followed it, but traffic remains a mess.

Engineering means building more roads that the metropolis sorely lacks. The government spent billions of pesos to construct new bridges and highways, like C-5, Skyway and the many flyovers, after decades of court battles to eject squatters. It enticed operators to build the elevated LRT and MRT railway lines. But no sooner were these finished when street hawkers occupied the approaches to the new structures, thus clogging traffic to and from feeder roads. Bus drivers too have taken to using shaded strips under the elevated rail and highways as free parking lots.

Education means teaching motorists and pedestrians alike to make a habit of following road rules. MMDA managers have tried everything, from putting up warnings against jaywalking deaths to shaming violators with bullhorns and makeshift jails under the sun. Traffic aides have pulled over smoke-belching motorists and perennial traffic violators for seminars to get their drivers’ licenses back. But hoots from the media and ubiquitous human-rights activists have reduced these efforts to spurts. Filipinos just seem uneducable about the big picture; they invoke individual rights to get to the office quickly without regard for the rights of others to do the same.

Enforcement of laws – and there are enough, no need for new ones – is the true solution. Invoking the two other Es only fudge the issue and cover up the need to employ a mailed fist against lawbreakers. This means erring motorists and jaywalkers, street hawkers and litterbugs, squatters and right-of-way encroachers – all of whom directly or indirectly cause the very traffic jams they all hate. And this is where Metro Manilans pin their hopes on their new MMDA head.

When Fernando set out a decade ago to put order in Marikina’s streets, residents at first called him berdugo, a man with a heavy hand. He first concentrated his efforts on street vendors who blocked traffic at the city center. Everyday he sent policemen to drive them away. When they returned, he had them arrested. At the same time, he built and expanded the public market and marked the streets around it one-way for smooth vehicular flow. Some vendors were simply too hard-headed to move into the new market. Soon, enforcers patrolled the streets with cans of kerosene which they poured on vegetables or clothing laid out for sale on the streets and sidewalks. Try selling your stuff after the gassing. The city council followed suit with an ordinance penalizing buyers from streets vendors with fines and confiscation of their purchases.

The experiment in toughness worked. Residents who at first said Fernando was brutal soon were singing him praises and reelecting him. The mayor turned his attention to the trash-littered inner roads. While improving City Hall’s garbage collection, he also had residents sweeping their streets either out of civic spirit or fear of Fernando’s stern enforcement of anti-littering fines. That and his nightly campaign against stray dogs eased up the traffic even more.

Fernando called in engineers to dredge creeks and social workers to relocate squatters from riverbanks. That enabled him to build new roads and bridges. Again, smoother traffic. He notified owners of commercial outlets and home lots to clear their sidewalks. A few encroachers, among them his own pals, thought they’d be exempt. To their surprise, Fernando brought in wreckers to demolish commercial signposts and residential fences that were erected beyond the two-meter setback for sidewalks.

In the end, everybody including the former lawbreakers admired Fernando for his grit. Marikina residents felt no resentment with his tough enforcement of the law, for he enforced it equally on everyone.

Can Fernando do it in a bigger metropolis this time? Metro Manilans are perhaps waiting for somebody to whip them all into line too.

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