What a traffic impact assessment means
The other day we wrote extensively about the traffic situation in Metro Cebu with emphasis on Cebu City. However, I apparently missed out on a report that I read in last Monday's Freeman, which blared, "CITOM backs move for mandatory TIA." TIA stands for Traffic Impact Assessment, which CITOM wants to impose on all real estate developers and construction firms as proposed by Councilor Gerardo Carillo.
The TIA being proposed comes from the guidelines conducted by the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies. So I'd like to know whether this is just another bureaucratic requirement, which is going to add to the cost of development. Secondly, why require contractors a TIA when in fact their job is merely to construct a building or housing development?
While we're on this subject… remember the Cuidad Project of my friend Michael Dino? This was a joint venture with a Malaysian investor that would have used the lot of the Cebu Provincial Government? That project was dead in the water when then mayor Tomas Osmeña did not give his approval to that project unless a traffic study was done. Now I guess this is what the TIA is supposed to do. But the problem there was that, there was never any intention by Mayor Osmeña to approve the Cuidad Project because of the political rivalry between him and then governor Gwen Garcia.
Anyway, what if the TIA shows that a development would worsen the traffic situation… would the Cebu City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) deny a developer permits to develop a certain area? What is the timetable for this? While the purpose of the TIA is noble, however, I'm one who believes in that famous quote, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." What's stopping someone inside City Hall from "profiting" from this scheme… so that regardless of what the TIA says about the traffic situation, the development that pays them still gets his permits? It nullifies the whole thing, if corruption gets in the way.
What the CPDO ought to do is strengthen their rules when old houses are turned into commercial establishments or restaurants, sans any parking space. We saw this happening at that house along Mango Avenue which has been replaced by a building called Coffee Bean and Scent. Why was this construction given a building permit if it did not have any parking provisions in its plans? Worse, it now has a business permit and I dare challenge Mayor Mike Rama to investigate this case for corruption.
What good is having a TIA requirement when building permits are given to establishments that do not have parking facilities? What is needed here is consistency in the application of the law more so that the Year 2015 is the year for the implementation of the ASEAN Integration.
So now let's shift this discussion on ASEAN Integration. While most government agencies crow that they are ready for this historic event, the way I look at things… we are just not ready for it. Except for the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. I don't hear anyone having seminars on what life would be in an era of ASEAN Integration.
In my book, all national government agencies should come up with seminars of what their various processes are today vis-à-vis when the ASEAN Integration is already implement or what used to be and what to expect in the future. Right now, the environment in most national government agencies is so far behind what the private sector is doing.
A case in point is something I discovered during our stakeholders meeting on the congestion of the Cebu port, where Bureau of Customs Collector Roberto Almadin admitted that even for granting overtime pay for their employees needs the approval of their Manila office. I dare say that our centralized system and bureaucratic governance will be the major stumbling block to the implementation of the ASEAN Integration.
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I don't know why my good friend, House Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr., still believes that the Bangsamoro Basic Law is not dead, when even the Senate has stopped all its hearings on this issue? What the nation saw last January 25th when Oplan Exodus (I wonder what ever happened to Oplan Wolverine) was the bloodthirsty way that Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldiers killed and desecrated the 44 Special Action Force soldiers, even in the aftermath of this dastardly carnage.
I just recently saw another MILF cellphone video uploaded by the MILF that showed a Moro soldier, finishing off a wounded soldier, shooting the poor SAF trooper point black on his face. These are horrifying images that we will never forget because the MILF doesn't deserve to be given a slice of Philippine territory. Federalism is the key to their autonomy but certainly not the BBL. In my book, what we are seeing is a Bangsa moro-moro!
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