No garage? No car for you!

Allow me to greet a very happy birthday to Sir Dodong Gullas who is one very low-key, unassuming leader who runs the University of the Visayas (UV) which is celebrating its 100th year and leads The FREEMAN, which also celebrates its 100th year. Sir Dodong is into Arts and Music especially Cebuano music, and is also a staunch supporter of the Catholic Church, especially the Archdiocese of Cebu. Sir Dodong never forgets people who are loyal to UV, The FREEMAN and the Gullas Family. So once more, happy birthday Sir Dodong and may you have many more birthdays to come.

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If there is any legislation that we have been actively pursuing, it is Senate Bill No. 201 of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian that proposes for a new law to ban the sale of any motor vehicle to anyone without any permanent parking space. This was a law I wrote about so many times before using Japan as the best example. This law was enacted way back in 1962 when Japan was having traffic chaos and when the Philippines had no traffic to complain about.

However, Japanese law requires motorists to prove they have access to a local parking space. To register a car, or when changing address, motorists need to obtain a "parking space certificate" (or shako shomei sho) from local police. If you are curious, Google it and look at Kanagawa’s English instructions on how to obtain the certificate.

Mind you, the proof of parking law has a twin law, which is the ban on overnight parking in the streets, which was enacted way back in 1957. This just gives you an idea of how Japan solved its traffic problems before they could become a hellhole just like we have because our engineers cannot find solutions to our traffic problems.

The first time I visited Japan was in 1970 and I notice that Japan already had an enormous traffic problem. But remember that 1970 vehicular traffic was unheard of in the Philippines and we called ourselves lucky that we didn’t have what Tokyo was suffering. Eventually, Japan learned to solve their traffic woes with numerous high-rise flyovers and, more often than not, many hotels had their lobbies on the four floor to accommodate the flyover. Today, Japan invented the car carousel, where cars are place on a carousel and all the owner has to do is press on the number of his car and the car would go down the carousel.

So we are 50 years behind Japan in that sense. So what is in store for the Philippines? I understand that the House of Representatives is set to join the Senate in pushing for a new law banning the sale of any motor vehicle to without permanent parking space for the vehicle. This means, Congress would have a similar law like Senate Bill No. 201.

This law was enacted to decongest the narrow streets of Metro Manila and “other highly-urbanized cities” and prevent their outer lanes and sidewalks from being turned into parking lots. I understand there are four related bills calendared for hearing by House transportation committee chairman Cesar Sarmiento.

The House of Representatives follows a 2016 proposal by Gatchalian of his “Proof of Parking Act” regulating the sale of motor vehicles in Metro Manila by requiring a proof of parking space from motor vehicle buyers as a prerequisite for the purchase of a motor vehicle and registration with the Land Transportation Office.

This bill has already cleared the first reading, with Gatchalian announcing last October that the trade, commerce and entrepreneurship, and public services committees have formed a technical working group to draft the legislative details.

Gatchalian apparently says that his proposed measure will help ease traffic congestion in the country and considers the bill to be quite relevant at this time, since this will instill a culture of responsible vehicle ownership among Filipinos. “The concept really here is responsibility when you buy vehicles.

We are now putting the responsibility on the car owners. If you buy cars, you have to make sure that you have a parking space for your own vehicle,” Gatchalian said. If you recall, 40 years ago when someone bought a new car people got to know about it in the afternoon. After all, Cebu City was a small place where everyone knew each other.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com

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