No more monkey business

I could not make heads or tails why on earth Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino is so pre-occupied with his trivial pursuit to run after litterbugs. There are bigger and worse problems in the metropolis where he could better sink his teeth into. I’m not suggesting though to the MMDA chairman to become a blood-sucking Dracula. 

The MMDA chief could use a little bit of commonsense to realize that going after litterbugs is a petty undertaking while there are more priority areas of concern that his agency could better deliver public service. The traffic situation, for one, is the number one concern of most Metro Manila folks like us who have to deal with everyday traffic jams.

It is during these times you wish to see MMDA traffic enforcers untangling traffic jams. But apparently, their focus is to catch litterbugs instead of watching out for traffic violators.

When I bumped into former MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando, I could not help but complain to him about the misplaced priorities of his successor in the agency. Fernando related to me that this litterbug campaign by the MMDA is nothing new. In fact, he recalled, the MMDA had as much as 30,000 litterbug cases during his administration that they decided to just throw these away instead of wasting scarce government funds to prosecute them.

The new MMDA chief should take the cue from his boss, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III who, in his first official trip to the United States last week, announced that the Philippines “is now open for business”.

And if indeed our country is now open for business, government agencies like the MMDA must see to it that traffic move fast enough.

Unfortunately, the long hours of being caught in traffic jams have dictated the pace of doing business here. I hope the MMDA chairman is not among those who have so-called “hawi” boys, or MMDA security escorts on motorbikes to clear his way in traffic. P-Noy has already led by example in doing away with “wang-wang” or horns and sirens used arrogantly in the past to clear traffic for VIPs (or very important persons). 

The major, major problem of traffic in Metro Manila is the lack of discipline of motorists, especially drivers of public utility jeepneys and buses. Adding to our traffic woes are the operations of tricycles, kuliglig (a tricycle run by small motor engine) and even the so-called de-padyak (or manually pedaled tricycle) that are plying the national roads. And these people do not even have driver’s licenses.

Traffic enforcement is not solely the function of the MMDA. It is also under the jurisdiction of local government units that field their own traffic enforcers. I gathered that in Quezon City alone, its traffic enforcement bureau have accumulated around 60,000 “unclaimed” driver’s licenses which were confiscated due to various traffic violations.

This just goes to show how easy it is to get driver’s licenses in our country. If caught and their licenses confiscated, these erring drivers obviously surrender to traffic enforcers “fake” licenses. So there is no need for them to reclaim these.

So I think there is wisdom in the move of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to reform their issuance of driver’s licenses using a new technology. Lately, there have been a lot of controversies surrounding the plan of the LTO to change the make of the present driver’s license from that of plastic to one that uses paper as a major component.

When LTO chief, Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres assumed her post last July, she immediately buckled down to work and ordered a review of all existing contracts and transactions of the agency, including among others, the bidding for the supply of driver’s license cards. And this was when her troubles started.

Fortunately for Torres, she is a career official who rose from the ranks through the 35 years she has been working at the LTO. And as fate had it, she was personally handpicked by P-Noy to head the LTO because of their long years of friendship and association. Prior to her promotion as LTO chief, Torres headed the LTO regional office in Tarlac, home province of P-Noy who is a shooting enthusiast like her.

But her maiden project to reform driver’s licensing at LTO has gotten her in the middle of contractors trying to outmaneuver each other to win the P.5-billion contract. Two of them are existing contractors at the LTO, the Amalgamated Motor Phils. Inc. and Stradcom Corp. that are fighting it out with eight other interested bidders.

Actually, Torres was convinced that a change in the material of the card is needed after she received numerous complaints about the PVC card easily breaking and prematurely fading, resulting in disappearing pictures and data prints. This is aside from the fact that the present card can be easily counterfeited, forged and falsified. Now the new ones will have foolproof security features embedded in them.

She knew about the research that started in October last year where the LTO determined that cards made of predominantly paper material were a better option. Unlike plastic cards with shiny solid surface in the present driver’s license, the proposed paper cards have a porous surface that allows the ink to penetrate and remain a permanent part of the card.

At present, the driver’s license cards are supplied and sourced from the existing supplier, Amalgamated, on a monthly “quantum meruit” basis, simply meaning that these are supplied and correspondingly paid on a monthly basis. Obviously, the LTO has to resort to this mode to avert a possible shortage of driver’s license cards as it tries to resolve various contentious issues being raised by vested interest groups and the bidders themselves who for obvious reasons would want to bag the contract.

In fairness to Torres, the original terms of reference were approved by her two predecessors, then Assistant Secretary Arturo Lomibao sometime February 2010, and then, Assistant Secretary Alberto Suansing who, upon his assumption as the new LTO head, ordered a review of the technical specifications of the paper card. Finding the same in order, Suansing approved the specifications and ordered the tender for the driver’s license.

Certainly, when P-Noy declared that the Philippines is now “open for business,” it does not include the usual monkey business in the bidding for government contracts under his administration.