Exclusive roads

If Rodrigo Duterte can untangle Metro Manila’s traffic mess, it would be one of the most memorable presidential legacies ever.

People are so sick of the chaos that no one is even expressing caution over proposals to grant emergency powers to the incoming president. Duterte has left an impression on the public that he will do whatever it takes anyway to implement his plans, that anyone who stands in his way will wake up in bed with a horse’s severed head.

So give the man emergency powers, and see what he does with them.

Already people who live or work in the city of Manila love Duterte for eschewing inaugural rites at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park – a move that he explained was so the event won’t create a monstrous traffic jam.

The emergency powers, we are told, can allow him to skirt certain procurement rules to fast-track transportation infrastructure and fix the disaster that is the Metro Rail Transit 3. He can overhaul procedures in the Bureau of Customs and Port of Manila  so trucks don’t have to sit the whole day around the area, waiting in long lines to pick up or deliver shipments.

Special powers may also put an end to the “boundary” or quota system that is the principal reason why drivers of public utility vehicles linger too long wherever they please, making it impossible to set regular schedules for arrivals and departures of buses at designated stops. PUV drivers pick up passengers even in the middle of the street, and block thoroughfares while waiting for passengers. The drivers aren’t paid regular salaries; their earnings depend on the number of passengers they pick up, so they try to pack their vehicles to overflowing.

Ending the boundary system has been difficult because certain bus companies are owned or protected by influential persons or clans. One of the biggest is connected with one of the most powerful individuals in the outgoing administration.

Duterte, it is hoped, will finally put an end to this system.

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Another area where emergency powers may help is in opening certain roads in gated villages to public use, for free.

Along this line, Duterte’s congressional allies should review laws governing private subdivisions. Many of those laws were created decades ago, before the entity called Metro Manila was created, when the government was encouraging development in Manila’s suburbs.

Gated villages sprouted all over, with homeowners taking responsibility for certain services that should be provided uniformly to all taxpayers by the government: security, street lighting, road maintenance, garbage collection and beautification.

Naturally, such services require funding. So on top of national and local taxes, homeowners must pay their associations monthly or annual dues, with no one setting limits for the amounts.

In recent years, certain homeowners’ associations discovered a lucrative enterprise: collecting fees for stickers to allow vehicles to use village roads. The stickers, good for one year, can cost from P150 in small gated villages to P1,500 at the United BF Homes – said to be the largest gated subdivision in Southeast Asia, which sprawls across Parañaque and Las Piñas. With hundreds of thousands, and possibly over a million motorists getting the stickers every year, it’s a hugely profitable business.

There are only four roads within the subdivision where the P1,500 stickers for non-residents are honored (and needed by motorists). Why can’t the city government open these to the public? The rest of the subdivision can still be closed to non-residents and sticker fees collected.

It can be done: the Binays battled homeowners in Makati and opened certain roads to vehicular traffic in more affluent villages.

Duterte may want to consider the case of Las Piñas, turf of his ally (and campaign financier) Manny Villar. Certain roads in several gated villages along a “friendship route” are open to Las Piñas residents, who are given vehicle stickers for free by the city government. The friendship route includes three streets within the Las Piñas portion of United BF Homes.

Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez promised to abolish the sticker fees and open certain subdivision roads in his city to the public to ease traffic. But this was before the elections. Someone must have given him an offer he couldn’t refuse (short of a horse’s head). Maybe his memory will be jogged by Duterte’s plans on Metro traffic.

Roads are crucial to economic activities. Think of the impact of opening McKinley Road, which cuts through the nation’s priciest exclusive village, Forbes Park, on the development of Bonifacio Global City and McKinley Hill in Taguig.

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Opening certain roads to the public also says a lot about social inclusiveness. Several expats have asked me a common question: why are there so many gated villages in the Philippines?

The question used to leave me flummoxed, having grown up in a society where certain social classes are physically segregated within walled enclaves with guarded gates.

But later, after thinking about it and having visited other countries, I understood why something Filipinos take for granted attracts the attention of foreigners.

Those who asked me the question came from countries that are far ahead in achieving social equity. All countries have their billionaires and VIPs, but certain societies enjoy a more equitable distribution of wealth and inclusive growth is not just political rhetoric.

People from these societies have told me that in their countries, they can walk right up to the doorsteps of their VIPs, who live along streets that are open to the public.

If there are walls and guarded gates, these surround only individual homes, not entire communities belonging to a particular income level.

The exceptions are the homes of royalty and official residences of heads of state and government who by law are provided protection by state forces.

Security is one of the biggest reasons for the creation of gated communities. But if anyone can enter anyway if he pays a fee or leaves a fake ID with a guard, what’s to stop a determined assassin or terrorist from sowing mayhem?

Gated communities also protect criminals. One exclusive village in southern Metro Manila has gained notoriety as a haven for foreign shabu manufacturers.

The government is mandated to deliver basic services to all, regardless of income level: to keep everyone safe, collect garbage and keep premises clean, provide street lighting and maintain roads. Some of the worst pavements in Metro Manila are in gated villages, despite residents’ payment of homeowners’ fees.

The national and local governments must exercise political will and take over – and not just to ease traffic flow.