In the name of Luneta

For the past two days traffic has been crawling like snail along Roxas Boulevard. If we used to travel at 40 kilometers per hour (kph) in normal traffic on Roxas Boulevard, we slow down to near zero as we enter the city of Manila. This is because of rerouting for the weeklong Shell Eco-Marathon Asia, or SEM Asia being held in Rizal Park.

Though dubbed as marathon, SEM Asia has nothing to do with people in a distance-running competition. It is actually a competition where over 140 teams of engineering students from all over Asia and the Middle East try to outdo each other in developing vehicles of the future — cars that run on alternative sources of energy and excel in terms of fuel efficiency and “smarter” vehicles.

Dubbed as the largest super mileage competition in the world for smart cars, SEM Asia was first held in 2010 at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where it was held until last year.

According to Shell, their company first started the Eco-marathon in 1939 at a Shell research laboratory in the United States. It all began as a friendly wager between scientists to see who could get the most miles per gallon from their vehicle. Shell noted the winner of that contest barely achieved 50 mpg (21 km/l).

From that humble origin, Shell cited, a more organized competition evolved. In 1985 in France, Shell Eco-marathon as it is known today, was born. In April, 2007 the Shell Eco-marathon Americas event was launched in the US and later the SEM Asia was held in Malaysia in 2010.

The SEM Asia is a joint project of Pilipinas Shell, Department of Tourism (DOT), and the city government of Manila. The SEM Asia is being held for the first time in the Philippines that would transform Rizal Park, or Luneta as it is more popularly called, into an urban circuit for cars that run on alternative sources of fuel.

Shell Companies in the Philippines signed in December last year a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Manila City government to formalize the partnership for SEM Asia. Former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada led the signing of the MOA with Shell representative Edgar Chua, country chair for Shell Philippines, and Vice-Mayor Isko Moreno as co-signatories.

From the use of Luneta Park to the co-development of an SEM marketing campaign of Shell, Manila agreed to host this event yearly until 2016.

Though Mayor Estrada kept complaining the city government was financially crippled when he took office in June 30 last year, Manila mounted the event. An urban track around Luneta was put up — thus the traffic was rerouted and which now causes monstrous traffic jams in Port Area, Bonifacio Drive, Intramuros, Del Pan, T.M. Kalaw, and other contiguous roads stretching from Manila City Hall itself all the way north to Quiapo. 

You can just imagine how many liters of gasoline are wasted as a result of the circuitous traffic re-routing contrary to what this energy-saving event is supposed to promote.       

The official flag off of the SEM Asia will be held this Friday morning. No less than President Benigno “Noy” Aquino lll is the special guest of the formal affair that will be held at the nearby Manila Hotel. For sure, the Presidential Security Group will cordon off certain areas and cause more traffic jams in the Luneta area. So avoid like deadly plague going anywhere near these areas in Manila or get stuck forever in traffic gridlock.

An apologetic Mayor Estrada appealed yesterday to the public for understanding for the traffic inconvenience, not to mention waste of gasoline and precious man-hours lost due to this event in Luneta that will run until February 12. He cited the boost in tourism in Manila because of some 5,000 foreigners who are expected to participate in the event.

As the designated “traffic czar” in the city, Vice Mayor Moreno justified the holding of this event despite the downside of traffic gridlocks now being suffered not just by Manilans but the rest of the commuters and motorists affected in nearby areas.

Interviewed yesterday by DzRH, Moreno said the holding of this SEM Asia would hopefully help Manila get out of its violence-prone image abroad. Moreno said this bad reputation stemmed from the bungled police rescue of the bus-hostage taking in August 2010 at Luneta where the Vice Mayor himself also figured.

Moreno acted initially as negotiator during the first hours of the bus hostage-taking, talking with former Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza who was subsequently killed. Moreno ended his negotiation when his former boss, then Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim took over the handling of the situation on the ground in Luneta.

Almost three years after this incident, this unfortunate case continues to haunt the entire Filipino nation. Only last week, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) headed by Leung Chun-ying announced holders of official Philippine government passports will no longer be allowed to visit for up to 14 days without visas starting today.

The HKSAR government decided to suspend the visa-free visits by Philippine officials because they say Aquino administration has refused to apologize for the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists in the bungled police rescue operation. Despite the personal condolences sent by P-Noy to each of the families of the eight victims and injured, the HKSAR officials still insist on a formal apology.

Mayor Estrada earlier offered to do it in behalf of the city government of Manila when HKSAR renewed their demand last year for P-Noy to issue the official apology. Estrada volunteered to assume full responsibility for the unfortunate incident and offered compensation package he solicited from Chinoys here for the victims. He conceded it was clearly a bungled job of his immediate predecessor as we all pay dearly for the backlash of this botched Luneta bus hostage incident.

Fearing that more serious sanctions might be imposed on overseas Filipino workers, Mayor Estrada will no longer be held back from flying personally to Hong Kong to do this errand if only to help put closure to this tragic episode. But do we have to suffer horrendous traffic gridlocks in Manila just to put end to this Luneta bus-hostage incident? That’s over-stretching one’s patience.