Last week, the Senate committee looking into giving the President emergency powers concluded its public hearings on the proposal. In the course of the last five weeks, they listened to 53 resource persons and received 62 written submissions.
Sen. Grace Poe, the public services committee chair, said a number of challenges in the traffic mayhem could be addressed by emergency power but there are also things that can already be done even without it. She is probably suggesting the Transport department should already get things going while waiting for it.
I was strongly in favor of giving the administration such emergency power as they assumed office. But I am now worried they may be leaning too heavily on getting it. Failure to get it soon may become a convenient excuse for delivering little in the first 100 days.
Indeed, Oct. 8, or the day they would be in power for 100 days is just two weeks away. Congress is too concerned with other things like the national budget and the headline-baiting hearings on the war on drugs.
But it isn’t as if nothing was done in the meantime. It is probably a quirk, but the few times I dared to go to Makati or NAIA, EDSA flowed rather well… even in the morning rush hour. Then again, Ortigas Avenue had been and it seems, always will be hellish. Traffic backs up all the way to Temple Drive and Greenmeadows Avenue.
The day after I wrote about the need to integrate traffic control operations with the PNP Highway Patrol in command, it happened. There is now better coordination between the HPG and MMDA, which includes sharing of facilities and personnel.
But that’s just EDSA and my good experience is likely a fluke. At the vicinity of NAIA T3, it was apparently a premonition of hell last Friday. I saw this post of motoring writer James Deakin on Facebook:
“A friend said he walked from the security gate to the departures so as not to miss his flight, checked in, caught his flight, texted his wife to say he had landed in Hong Kong, only to find out she hadn’t made it to the end of the driveway of NAIA 3.
“PS: It took my mother in law 3.5 hours to fly from Singapore to Manila. It took four hours to get out of the driveway of Terminal 3. And according to Google maps, we could have walked all the way home 3x faster than it took us by car.
“One person said it took him five hours to get from T3 to his airport hotel in Marriott. Countless others told me they missed their flights altogether.”
Apparently, that’s normal for the area. Someone commented to Deakin “this happened to us last Sept. 3. Resorts World to T3 took us four hrs!!!!!!”
Deakin replied: “There you go! Thought that would be a total exaggeration until I experienced this tonight first hand.”
Another commented: “Traffic was not moving so our driver parked the car and walked with my 83 year old dad from Marriott hotel across to T3 just to catch his flight. But just to be informed later that his flight was delayed.”
Deakin replied: “WTF? Question, how do you walk across safely? I didn’t notice a pedestrian crossing.”
Maybe LRT- 1 should do a spur line to the airport terminals to give a reliable option. Its depot is just across the street from Terminal 4.
As for the traffic mess up in the air, there seems to have been a big improvement in the on time performance of local airlines lately from 30 percent to 80 percent. It is all because the Transport department finally restricted the operations of general aviation aircraft and strictly implemented the slotting and scheduling of flights. These were two low hanging fruits the last administration only talked about.
The MRT-3 is as hopeless as ever. It is breaking down almost as often as before. The Transport department is so afraid of firing the manager inherited from Jun Abaya. The manager is now in a position to cover up mistakes of the past. The plan was to re-hire Sumitomo to fix things.
“There is no dispute that Metro Manila is faced with a traffic crisis that demands extraordinary actions,” my friend Rene Santiago writes. “Extraordinary, however, is not the same as emergency – literally and figuratively.”
Rene is a seasoned expert in transport systems who is consulted by multilateral agencies and governments of ASEAN countries. He is presently in Myanmar helping the newly emerged state get its transport infrastructure up and running.
According to a release by the office of Senator Poe, they are looking at granting emergency power for two years. This is power to do away with tedious public bidding and instead use alternative procurement methods for the speedy implementation of transportation projects “unhampered by existing laws, agreements, regulations, court orders and procedures that may cause delay in addressing the crisis.”
Emergency power is also expected to authorize the President to reorganize DOTr, LTO, LTFRB, CAAP, CAB, MMDA, PNP HPG, other agencies in the transport sector to “rationalize their functions.” The measure is also expected to designate the Transport Secretary as traffic crisis manager who will exercise overall land, air and sea traffic management and control.
Sen. Poe further said the committee is thinking of including a provision in the bill that would incorporate ICT-based solutions to solve traffic, specifically on a wider use of tele-commuting by workers.
That’s possible, but only with far better internet speeds. She wants to facilitate the immediate issuance of cell site permits to help make internet faster. Vietnam has 45,000 cell sites, we have only 25,000... We need at least 50,000.
Rene is skeptical about all the attention focused on the grant of emergency power. “The grant of emergency powers may help, but it is not a magic wand. Powers without specifics, however, is like giving a child a loaded gun. For these powers to be effective, therefore, it must be wielded with precision – a sniper gun rather than a shotgun.”
It is easy to see why the procurement process is a target of the proposed emergency power. The government’s procurement process is a minefield that can significantly delay completion of projects.
Rene thinks the emergency power grant can tweak RA#9184 and RA#7718. “If some of the formalities in RA#9184 can be waived, at least three - six months can be saved… in particular, Article XVI of the Procurement Law.”
The BOT Law is another mode of procurement. “It is the preferred route of serious mega investors as well as the buccaneers. While some formalities of RA#7718 also can be waived, it should not lead to financial time bombs where all taxpayers – whether they are residents of Metro Manila or Tawi Tawi - end up picking the tab.
“For example, unsolicited proposals, if entertained at all, should specifically exclude ‘take or pay’ or similar capacity-fee schemes where the proponent assumes no commercial risks or is guaranteed periodic payments from the national treasury - regardless of ridership. This was the original sin of MRT-3 that got buried by subsequent and many other sins.”
Outside of the procurement process, but nonetheless a major hurdle during implementation is the Environmental Compliance Clearance (or ECC) hurdle. Rene asks: “Shall this be waived or suspended under the Emergency Power Act?”
Rene goes on: “Noble in intent, our ECC, in practice, has degenerated. A barangay chief, or a village association, can hold hostage a project of national and metropolitan importance. The ECC has become the favorite weapon of NIMBYs – those who like things to happen, but not in their backyards.”
There are other factors to be covered in a future column. In the meantime, it is clear the proposal to grant emergency power won’t be given soon. This is why Sec. Tugade must get going with his “to do list” even without emergency power.
Having assumed office with a lot of public expectations, any explanation for failure will only sound like a pathetic excuse for incompetence. Harsh, but it is the reality.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.