Better roads for all

Probably because of a total daytime truck ban, traffic was light on the first two days of the 45th board meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila.

Along Roxas Boulevard from Baclaran to Rizal Park early in the afternoon yesterday, people in yellow shirts and red trousers were hard at work in the scorching summer heat, sweeping and keeping traffic islands and curbs clean, and putting solid waste neatly in large black plastic bags.

The freshly repaved Roxas Boulevard reminded me of what the thoroughfare was like ages ago, when it was still called Dewey, and before road repair became a major source of fat commissions.

If that smooth layer of asphalt (I saw portions being laid and estimated the thickness at about four to five inches) survives the approaching typhoon season and flooding along certain stretches, it should set the standard for road quality in this country.

A common reaction from motorists who are enjoying the seamless drive is, kaya naman palang gawin: so it can be done after all. When the government puts its mind to it, roads of good quality are possible, so why didn’t we see this in the past?

The likely answer to that one may be why certain public officials are facing criminal charges for road projects. Several have been suspended or dismissed from government service.

Even under the administration that touts the straight path or daang matuwid, an overpass in Buendia took several months to rehabilitate, and then had to be torn up and repaired again.

Officials of development aid institutions, who are in Manila for the ADB meeting, should be keenly interested in the quality of Philippine roads, many of which are funded through foreign concessional loans or grants.

In January 2009, the World Bank debarred seven companies and an individual after they were deemed to have colluded in bidding for two Philippine national road projects funded with $33 million from the WB. The individual was one of the most influential public works contractors during the Arroyo administration.

The ADB itself has blacklisted companies and individuals for various reasons including collusion in bidding and minor fraud. In 2008 alone, the ADB blacklisted 41 companies and 38 individuals in several countries for corruption-related offenses.

The problem is not unique to the Philippines. Because of the amounts involved, the arduous process of winning a contract and implementing it, and the many opportunities for subcontracting, public works and other construction projects are prone to corruption at every step.

In China for example, former Beijing vice mayor Liu Zhihua, who headed the office that oversaw the $40 billion for infrastructure projects related to the 2008 Olympic Games, received a suspended death sentence for accepting millions of yuan in cash and gifts from property development companies, and helping his mistress make money from construction projects.

In Japan, three executives of Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International were convicted in 2009 and the company fined 70 million yen ($774,000 at the time) for bribing a senior transport official of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City with $820,000 to win road construction contracts funded by Japanese official development assistance. The scandal prompted Tokyo to suspend low-interest loans to Hanoi.

The World Bank Institute estimates that over $1 trillion is paid in bribes around the globe each year, with much of the amount going to construction-related projects.

In 2009, the top sources of bribes, as ranked by corruption watchdog Transparency International, were companies in Russia, China, Mexico and India.

The United States passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977, under which US firms can be penalized if found engaging in bribery to bag contracts overseas.

Europeans are belatedly warming up to the idea of having similar laws. There are Europeans who openly grouse that they have to resort to bribes to compete with American investors, who (the Europeans say) are backed in their overseas ventures by Washington’s diplomatic (and sometimes military) clout.

For a long time, bribery has been factored in as a regular cost of doing business in Asia. Who suffers? Mainly ordinary folks, who must endure substandard roads and other infrastructure because contractors cut corners to make up for the cost of corruption.

Apart from graft, the government has simply not invested enough in building good roads. A study released earlier this year by the state-run Philippine Institute for Development Studies showed that only 14 percent of local roads and 69 percent of national roads are paved.

The World Bank links the quality of roads to a country’s level of development. Substandard roads also pull down national competitiveness. The WB has noted that among other things, poor road quality has made intercity freight rates in the Philippines 50 percent higher than in Thailand and Vietnam.

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Where quality roads have been built, the government seems bent on making their use a luxury in this developing country.

Building and maintaining quality roads should be a basic service and responsibility of the government. Good roads spur commercial activity, tourism and development.

At the rate we’re going, however, every good road will soon be a tollway. Using these tollways on a regular basis can eat up the earnings of an average family.

Steep toll rates, made worse by VAT, discourage urban decongestion and defeat the purpose of easing traffic on regular roads.

Only a tiny fraction of the population, including lawmakers who approve toll franchises, the contractors who build the roads, and politicians particularly those who receive kickbacks for road projects can afford to use those tollways regularly without resentment.

In Metro Manila, using good roads can also be a pain because of speed traps. A maximum speed of 60 kph on Macapagal Boulevard is unreasonable; that’s speeding for a calesa. The 100-kph limit newly imposed on the Skyway defeats the purpose of having a Skyway to avoid the traffic below on the SLEX.

Yet personnel of the Metro Manila Development Authority, instead of untangling the perennially horrid traffic jams around the Redemptorist church in Baclaran, congregate at spots where traffic is light along Macapagal Boulevard to catch any motorist going beyond the limit.

Where motorists are free to drive as fast as they safely can, they are slowed down by substandard roads.

Now that we are seeing what looks like good quality pavement in Metro Manila, thanks to the ADB gathering, the government of daang matuwid should commit to make substandard roads or daang baku-bako a thing of the past.

And a pro-poor government should commit to make access to these good roads a universal right, not a luxury.