We complicate things

An accomplished businessman wrote me to say we are needlessly complicating solutions to our problems:

“Inflation is going to eat into consumption unless we build infrastructure to bring in tourists.

“Build Build Build is being oversold. I guess that is the common thread of all administrations. Over promise and under deliver. Without doubt they should be managing expectations. But they should not have created them to start with... but more importantly… they need to focus on only two things: 

“Infra for Manila traffic… elevated connector roads. Help Ramón Ang and MVP get the right of way. NLEX-SLEX connector, C6… etc;

“Infra for tourism. The southern airports; Clark and a new Manila airport. That is all the time they have.

“And how to finance it? First priority privatize… second, sell all the assets they have… SMC. Cocobank. All of NPC. etc..  They pride themselves in dividends… CAAP and PPA paying dividends… Mama mia. That is terrible. They should be building ports… Davao, Cebu, Manila all congested…

“Just look what happened when something was done…

“There were tons of traffic to MOA and the airport… San Miguel builds one measly NAIA expressway and the traffic disappeared… We do not have too many cars. We have too few roads… Two connector roads and C6 and you will see the change.”

I share his view. The bane of our existence as a nation is our propensity to complicate the simple. It is probably due to the number of surplus lawyers, specially in government, trying to make themselves appear useful.

It is also because of corruption endemic in our system. Officials and bureaucrats make things complicated because it is not easy to make illicit money when things or processes are simplified.

That was why I thought Duterte was different. He has this record of simplifying things in Davao City Hall. I was hoping he can do the same thing at the national level. 

But the last two years showed the system is too entrenched for reform. Not even the much claimed political will of Duterte made a difference. Maybe he was too focused on drugs he didn’t try hard enough on other things.

Anyway, we need public officials who can reduce problems to simple terms. The previous and the current administrations failed to produce persons like that to head DOTr and DPWH.

The problems at NAIA are not new. It has a single international runway and has long exceeded the number of passengers it is rated to handle. Flights in and out are delayed costing airlines and passengers billions of pesos in losses. There is no room for a second parallel runway unless government has the political will to expropriate subdivisions in its periphery.

There is Clark, but too cumbersome for Metro Manila passengers. EDSA traffic makes the trip to the business center too punishing. There is talk of a fast train connection. But even then, Tugade talks of the service up to Tutuban only and not a fast train.

In the meantime, there are a number of unsolicited proposals to build a brand new international airport from scratch. The most advanced of these proposals is from San Miguel… no subsidy, no guarantee from government, all private risk.

It had been approved by the NEDA board in a meeting presided by President Duterte last April 26. It is a simple solution to the NAIA situation, but it is not moving. 

That unfortunate accident at NAIA last week has exasperated people enough to ask in social media: what is keeping San Miguel from starting to build their dream airport? NEDA-ICC and DOF.

Apparently, the NEDA Board approved the project for Swiss challenge subject to final negotiations on the concession agreement.

NEDA-ICC and DOF were supposed to consolidate all comments of government agencies and then pass these on to DOTr for use as guidelines when it sits down with San Miguel for the final terms before Swiss challenge. DOTr had been waiting for NEDA-ICC and DOF to send those comments, but have received nothing over the last four months.

Under BOT rules, negotiation on the concession agreement must be concluded in 80 days after a notice of negotiation is issued by DOTr. We are not even there yet. Maybe middle of next year is being optimistic for construction to start. 

Grapevine tells me DOF is sitting on it, worried that the project is too big to fail. Even if no explicit or implied government guarantees are involved, DOF is concerned about the health of the banks lending to San Miguel if the project fails. But banks are big boys and San Miguel’s lenders are international banks.

The NAIA modernization proposal of the tTaipan consortium should also move fast because like the San Miguel airport, it also has original proponent status and urgently needed. But our bureaucracy has no sense of urgency. They love studying proposals to death.

 Sayang. The San Miguel airport proposal is urgently needed and is totally private risk. San Miguel is ready to operate the Bulacan airport without asking government to shut down NAIA.

 SMC’s proposed airport will be built on a 2,500-hectare property with up to six runways. It will be able to handle more than 100 million passengers a year.

As a bonus, the airport project will help address Bulacan’s perennial flooding problem by building a spillway to discharge excess water from denuded watersheds directly to Manila Bay.  

Our problems are simple and so are the solutions. Our bureaucrats just insist on complicating things.

Enough of that now. We have no time to waste, not with a fast growing population that is sinking deeper into poverty unless we grow a lot faster.

Jelly fish

The fact that jellyfish has survived 650 million years without brains gives hope to many people.

(Not sure how true. And I am not necessarily thinking of our bureaucrats.)

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