DOTC officials afflicted with Eh Bola

Because it was too dangerous for my health to continue being a journalist during martial law days, I ended up on the other side of the fence --- in PR. I was lucky to have been tutored in PR by the PR and advertising pioneer Antonio R. de Joya.

The first lesson he taught me was simple enough. PR, he stressed is not about making bola, which at that time was what many people thought Public Relations was about. PR, he said, means Performance Reporting. If your client has nothing good to report, you cannot use PR to make it seem like he has. You will be exposed and it will backfire… eh bola lang yan!

Obviously, whoever is running the PR side of DOTC is of the Eh Bola school of Public Relations: If you make the people bola enough, you can make them believe you are doing something even if you are not.

Some weeks ago, DOTC officials attended the board meeting of Manila Golf with a presentation on the supposed subway project they claim they will undertake. Why Manila Golf? Well… they want to get permission to run the subway under the fairways of the country’s premier golf club.

I have no idea how the Manila Golf directors reacted. I assume those Manila Golf directors didn’t get to where they are by being gullible. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few them found it difficult to suppress an impolite laugh.

Those DOTC officials have the chutzpah to talk about a subway system when they are hard pressed to deliver four lousy kilometers of additional rail lines so LRT 2 can reach Antipolo before P-Noy leaves office.

 I sense DOTC is using a PR offensive to make it look like they are busy. But this Eh Bola approach is not going to work. Because people are actually suffering due to the absence of adequate transport infra, only real and visible performance will work.

Eh Bola is also being used in a recent press release about DOTC putting up a P4-billion third runway for NAIA at Sangley. Huh? I had to make a double take on that one.

True, NAIA needs a third runway because it is set to reach full capacity by 2015, a decade before a potential replacement airport in Sangley Point is completed. DOTC is saying this third runway in Sangley will supplement existing runways in NAIA.

Ano daw? I asked technical people if it is possible to have a third runway of NAIA at Sangley. Parang mahirap yata.

How will it work? Will the control tower just direct any incoming flight to land at Sangley because NAIA is busy? Does this mean flights to Manila can be asked to land in either airports depending on air traffic conditions?

Parang magulo.  The passengers of any plane landing at Sangley will be stuck there. What if the folks picking them up are at NAIA rather than Sangley?

Besides, one transport expert mused, for it to work, the control tower of NAIA must be able to see the Sangley runway. The third runway must be built in NAIA. There is no going around the need to relocate the houses around NAIA that stand in the way.

Maybe, one expert told me, they mean finally relocating General Aviation to Sangley and these private planes will use the revitalized Sangley runway. The only problem is that DOTC is also talking of moving the entire NAIA to Sangley soon. It is not fair to let Gen Av relocate there only to ask them to move again because they have to redevelop the site for a new NAIA.

The only do-able interim solutions to address the expected full capacity utilization of NAIA, one expert told me are the following:

 (1) Install night landing facilities in outlying airports (so domestic flights can re-arrange their schedules and not crowd into Manila between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

(2) Divert flights to Mactan-Cebu and Clark.

The other Eh Bola story from DOTC has to do with Sec. Jun Abaya’s so called Solomonic decision to have two common stations, one mini station at SM and one at Trinoma. Again, experts I consulted told me the idea is not so much Solomonic as moronic.

First, it is a delayed acknowledgment on Sec Jun’s part that a Trinoma common station will create problems for MRT 7. According to Abaya the SM mini station will take in LRT 1 and MRT 7. The Trinoma site can take it LRT1 and MRT3. Only the SM site can take in all three.

Teka muna… what happens to the P1 billion savings which Abaya used to justify the Trinoma option? And if the committed passenger volumes for MRT 7 does not happen because the big common station where all three systems converge was not constructed, government is liable for amounts a lot larger than P1 billion.

The latest news is that MetroPac, the presumed winner of the LRT1 deal that includes building the common station has rejected the Abaya two station proposal. This means more delay for the over delayed LRT 1 extension project.

Eh Bola had also been used in MRT 3. DOTC’s Eh Bola approach to MRT 3 safety produced tragic consequences last Wednesday with a derailment that injured scores of passengers.  It could have been worse.

It is also so unfair that Sec Abaya is now blaming “human error” for Wednesday’s accident. That’s blaming the poor drivers of the MRT rail cars for problems caused by DOTC’s lack of maintenance. Jarius Bondoc and I have been warning about accidents waiting to happen at MRT for the longest time. Sec. Abaya has done nothing and has earned the moniker netizens gave him: Sec. Abaya. 

Then again Eh Bola is about as much as we can expect from DOTC. Abaya, like Mar Roxas, is incapable of making decisions to move things forward. Eh Bola defines DOTC. That’s a pity because commuters will continue to suffer the consequences of DOTC’s technical deficit, and that includes very real risks to their lives.

Tagal naman ng 2016! Worse, six more years pa daw?

NAIA taxis

A reader complained in an earlier column about the profiteering NAIA taxis. Here is the response of Maria Consuelo Bungag OIC public affairs department:

“Allow me to clarify that contrary to the sender’s opinion, he was not misled by the information staff when told that the taxi bay is at Bay 19. The yellow taxis are stationed there. It appears however that on the way to Bay 19, the passenger was approached by malefactors who attempted to fix an excessive fare rate prompting him to cross over to the other side of the curb.

“In this instance, the passenger made a correct decision when he availed of the services of the yellow taxi as they are duly accredited by the MIAA and their rates approved by the LTFRB.

“The MIAA has in place a penalty system intended to institute discipline and order in the way transport concessionaires carry out their business in NAIA. Since its implementation, a great number of taxi drivers have been terminated and transport operators penalized. Rest assured that the MIAA is serious in this effort and will not condone any abusive attempt against a passenger.

“On the other hand, sanitizing outside areas of the terminal is continuously being carried out by our airport police. However, achieving this effort a hundred percent is truly challenging for them, owing to the Filipino tradition of meet and greet at the airport.

“Usually, enterprising individuals, like the one encountered by your letter sender, thrive in public areas where they can easily disguise as sending off or meeting a passenger. Just the same, we are committed to take them all out of NAIA.”

I sent this reply to the original letter writer and he was not impressed by Ms. Bungag’s response.

“Hi Boo, twice in recent months I planed in at PAL Terminal 2 and every time I was met by overcharging taxi operators. At Bay 19 there is a white lectern manned by a lady who offers overpriced taxi rates.

“Obviously, our airport police do not know how to catch these operators who conduct their dirty business in broad daylight and in full view of everyone.

“I have a suggestion for the writer, Ms. Consuelo Bungag:

“Pretend you are a passenger just disembarked from a PAL plane with luggage in tow. Go to the information desk and ask where you can get a cab and you will be directed to Bay 19.

“At Bay 19 when you are offered overpriced taxi rates make an arrest and yank these guys from NAIA  once and for all. You do not have to be as brilliant as Sherlock Holmes to catch these thieves. Just be creative and more importantly determined to put them out of business.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is[email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco