MMDA is all over the place

There are so many things on the plate of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). It is worthy to note that MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino has been very visible as a hands-on manager. Personally taking charge of MMDA projects, Tolentino shows his kind of leadership of the agency in charge of the 16 cities in Metro Manila and the lone municipality of Pateros.

Tolentino has been all over the place in every new initiative taken by the MMDA. Weeks prior to the implementation of the anti-smoking campaign launched by the MMDA, Tolentino led the intensified information campaign in media to warn the public of the strict enforcement of this law against smoking in public places.

On the first day of the anti-smoking crackdown at the start of this month, MMDA “environment personnel” were deployed to nab smokers. Those caught were issued violation tickets and ordered to pay the P500 fine for their first offense. 

Smokers apprehended for the second time will have to pay a P1,000 fine while those arrested for the third time and for subsequent offenses will have to pay a P5,000 fine. Those who will not be able to pay the fines will be made to render eight hours of community service.

Under Republic Act (RA) 9211, or the “Tobacco Control Act,” public places are defined as “enclosed or confined areas of all hospitals, medical clinics, schools, public transportation terminals and offices, and buildings such as private and public offices, recreational places, shopping malls, movie houses, hotels, restaurants, and the like.”

The MMDA operation against smokers in public places is conducted every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. So far, the MMDA anti-smoking campaign has reportedly netted quite a number of violators. Well and good, if that’s the case.

As expected, the MMDA’s anti-smoking campaign gets the small fry, so to speak. Will the MMDA even attempt to go after the “big” smoker of them all living inside a heritage building — where smoking is a complete no-no — a public place called Malacañang Palace? 

Incidentally, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Babes Singson announced yesterday that he would also strictly enforce RA 9211 in the DPWH head office on Bonifacio Drive in Manila. Certainly, the DPWH office is not among those conferred the distinction of being “heritage” buildings. But Singson also imposed this “smoke-free” policy in all other offices of the agency nationwide to safeguard not only the health and environment of DPWH officials and employees but also of the transacting public.

I gathered there is supposed to be a Bloomberg grant given to the MMDA to implement the anti-smoking campaign over a two-year period. Thus, the MMDA has to show results for this grant to continue.

I have no quarrel with enforcing smoking bans, especially in public places. In fact, I fully support it. But what is glaringly superficial in this MMDA campaign is going after smokers in the streets. These individual smokers are the least of my health worries compared to the definitely much deadlier smoke-belchers on the road that MMDA should run after.

And what about the colorum buses and jeepneys that clog roads and are major causes of daily traffic jams? These monstrous traffic gridlocks are not only the source of toxic air pollutants — much worse than smoking cigarettes — but also cost a lot of downtime and lost man-hours.

This is not to mention these traffic jams result in so much waste of gasoline, the price of which jacked up anew by P2 per liter just yesterday. Where are the MMDA traffic enforcers?

Then, the MMDA immediately embarked on yet another high-profile undertaking against illegal billboards along EDSA and major thoroughfares in Metro Manila. Last week, the MMDA removed billboards along EDSA that featured seven members of the country’s rugby team, the Philippine Volcanoes, as ad models clad only in their briefs.

Taking up the role as guardian of “public morals,” Tolentino ordered MMDA personnel to also take down the billboards of actresses Angel Locsin and Anne Curtis shown clad in sexy attire along EDSA near Boni Avenue in Mandaluyong. Similar billboards along EDSA near the TriNoma mall and in Pasay City were also taken down, the MMDA said.

Tolentino explained that the Volcanoes’ billboards were taken down not only because of their “offensive” content but also because they violated billboard size restrictions. On top of that, the offending billboards also violated the easement guideline, which requires billboard structures to be at least 10 meters away from the Pasig River.

According to the MMDA, there are at least 2,000 billboards along EDSA with many of these installed in Makati City, Pasay City, Quezon City and Mandaluyong City.

With the myriad of projects and undertakings of the MMDA, Tolentino is maybe spreading too thin the manpower and resources of the agency, as it is doing things already outside its mandate.

The MMDA chairman must not lose sight of the principal tasks of the MMDA on traffic management, anti-pollution, campaign against colorum buses and jeepneys, and most especially, flood control programs. Amid the rainy season in the country, flooding is the next biggest reason for traffic. The MMDA is maybe all over the place, except where we need it most, to untangle gridlocks for a free flow of vehicles and to clear the roads for safe travel.