Good and bad

With our office right smack in the middle of the port area, it is a daily experience for me to literally come up against a solid wall of container vans going to and coming from the container yard at the Port of Manila. It is the ultimate test for a new driver to be able to negotiate Anda Circle and reach our office without getting into an accident or getting a nervous breakdown. To paraphrase a popular song, if you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere.

Whenever I find myself dwarfed in the middle of these humongous vans, I tell myself not to complain too much because, although it is inconvenient and then some for me, this just means that business is good, imports and exports are doing well and the economy is thriving.

Unfortunately, the Bureau of Customs or the Ports Authority, or both, cannot seem to keep up with the increased business. Processing time per truck takes so long these huge monsters are backed up in all directions. The wait is apparently so long many of the drivers leave their trucks and go off for lunch or merienda or to take a bathroom break. No wonder truckers and forwarders and businessmen complain of huge losses – it’s not just because of the truck ban but the snail’s pace at the port, where so much time is wasted. And in this case, time really is money. 

It’s rather difficult to sustain goodwill towards Customs, when the daily mess in the streets I have to wrassle with is compounded by unending reports of smuggling, misdeclaration, underdeclaration, shipments legal and otherwise of things like DVDs and foodstuff (mostly canned and bottled goods from China) and garlic (now in the spotlight) and onions being held in port and then suddenly released (you don’t have to guess why). The task of cleaning up Customs is really like cleaning the Augean Stables, and I wonder if the commissioner is enough of a Hercules to do the job.

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Passenger vehicles sales in the country rose by over 20 percent last month, with Toyota alone reportedly selling over 9,000 units. Cars assembled here, imported cars, luxury cars, utility vehicles, all saw increases in sales, despite the constant oil price hikes. All those new cars driven out of the showrooms will of course add to the congestion on our roads, especially in the metropolis, making getting around town even more difficult.

But, looking at it positively, it means that there are people who have money and are spending, which is good for business, good for industry, good for the economy.

Not so good though for those who do not have the money to buy a new car, for those who have to take public transport to get to work, to market, to the movies.  Commuting by jeepney, bus, light rail, train is still a nightmare that government cannot seem to find a workable solution for.