EDITORIAL — Courtesy for VIPs

People generally do not begrudge the president of the republic the courtesy of a traffic-free drive anywhere in the country. Even when Noynoy Aquino banned the unauthorized use of sirens and blinkers to eliminate the VIP wang-wang entitlements during his administration, people didn’t mind if traffic was eased to make way for his official convoy.

The rationale is that the nation’s highest official has the heaviest workload and the most packed schedule in this country, with a mountain of problems of state to attend to, and the sooner he can get from Point A to Point B, the better all around.

Whether a president’s constitutional successor and spare tire, the vice president, deserves the same courtesy in traffic-choked urban thoroughfares is debatable. Metropolitan Manila Development Authority acting Chairman Romando Artes thinks so, explaining that both the president and vice president deserve the courtesy “because they have security concerns.”

Artes issued the statement amid the confusion arising from a viral video showing a member of the Quezon City Police District stopping all traffic along Commonwealth Avenue last Thursday ostensibly for the passage of an unnamed VIP. Perhaps the word was misheard as “VP” by both the person taking the video and the QC policeman. The traffic jam was attributed to the Vice President, who at the time was in Mindanao. The QCPD has yet to identify who the real VIP was that prompted the brief road closure.

The incident should give authorities a lesson in the rational provision of road courtesy to VIPs. Unless there is a clear and present security threat, there’s no sane reason to close a wide, busy avenue just to make way for a VIP convoy. Even in the rare occasions when foreign heads of government or other international dignitaries gather in Metro Manila, “zipper lanes” are designated along thoroughfares to minimize traffic disruptions, with roads closed only around specific venues.

Around Manila’s Rizal Park, traffic gridlocks have become a regular bane each time a new ambassador lays a wreath at the Rizal monument, as part of rituals for the presentation of credentials to the Philippine government. The entire stretch of Roxas Boulevard running through the park is closed off. This is one of the busiest road stretches, used by cargo trucks going to and from the country’s largest port. Even a 10-minute closure can cause massive traffic jams for several kilometers around the area.

Traffic gridlocks are bad enough especially in Metro Manila and other highly urbanized centers nationwide, which is why there are supposed to be traffic management units. There has to be more efficient and imaginative ways of “management” than closing an entire road just to make way for a VIP.