A lesson from a bad experience

For a long while, the elected barangay leaders in our city and other areas were getting pampered. Thru their village captains, they were gifted with motorized vehicles ostensibly for mobilization as major part of public service. The earliest units that were supplied by higher echelon officials, like the congressmen and the mayor, were those that we have come to call as “multicabs”. The tack was novel and suddenly our punong barangays and their kagawads zoomed in and out of their barangays in newly found travelling comfort.

I do not really know how the name evolved nor why are they called multicabs. Almost all of us however believe that they are the vehicles that are no longer allowed in their countries of origin, Japan mainly. Information relayed by knowledgeable sources tells us that these transportation units have breached their qualitative levels of road worthiness and their maintenance has become economically burdensome and environmentally harmful. For these reasons, and more, their serviceability is not authorized. In short, these units are not allowed to run anymore on the streets of the countries where they were built and have thus outlived their usefulness other than selling them to suckers like us.

Filipino entrepreneurship, as well as our ingenuity, comes into play. Filipino businessmen know that because these vehicles being discards, their prices are practically give-away. Oh yes, while discards, they still are operational. So, importers buy them in bulk and after introducing some face-lifting, sell them at handsome profits. I have ideas of the landed cost these vehicles as well as their eventual market prices and I am happy for our traders.

It is easy to expect that the remaining life span of these multicabs is rather short. After being used in their countries of origin for say four years, they cannot run forever with their parts starting to break even just from ordinary wear and tear. Proving this point is not difficult. A quick visit to the barangay halls in the city is all that is needed. There, or in nearby places, we will not miss seeing unserviceable multicabs. These are in the state of utter decay. Their tires are busted, lighting systems missing and windshields shattered. In my curiosity, I learned that that, on the average, they served the barangays for two years.  

Our government is constantly faced with the budgetary shortfalls. We always have less money to spend for needed basic services. This article today is not just about multicabs and their costs. If I highlight these motorized vehicles, it is because these are glaring examples of wastage of funds. I have always maintained, since the multicab came into the hands of barangay officials, that there are better projects to spend for. The cost of a multicab then, could supply the number of new desks a classroom would require.

I write in the hope that government leaders continue to adopt the policy of maximizing the use of meager available funds. If, for instance, transportation units are, indeed, in the higher priority of our leaders’ administrative schemes, let the expense be worth. From this multicab experience that I have a lesson to dwell on, it would have been more economical to buy better quality, if not brand new, vehicles that would last much longer than acquiring the multicabs.

We learned that the city council returned to the office of the mayor, the latter’s proposal contained in the latest supplementary budget. Quibbling, as partisans normally do, on whether that was a correct Sangguniang Panlungsod move or an undue meticulousness is and should not be our present concern. There will be time for that.

Apropos to this article, I rather, expect the Hon. Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, to respond positively. He is presented with the opportunity to explain to us, his constituency, the administrative direction he seeks to prop up with the kind of supplemental budget he has prepared. What is primordial is for him to convince us the viability of his list of priorities. If that is accomplished, we can give him our approval, silent though it may be, to apply limited resources to these planned expenses. Yes, the multicab experience can be his guideline.