No wonder there was no urgency for the Aquino government to find solution to the horrendous traffic that Metro Manilans have to survive daily: they continue to think it’s an affirmation of their “good work.”
Aquino always brags that under his term, the Philippines experienced economic boom.
And proof of that economic boom, he said, is the traffic gridlock. Last year, he told the Filipino community in Spain: “When you come home and you’re caught in traffic, just remember that people are running errands, not just loitering around. That is a sign of economic growth.”
Last week, his anointed, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas echoed that line at the annual national convention of the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Inc. (Philsutech) in Cebu.
“This is a problem in a sense that arises from prosperity. Because there is money. Because there is economic activity,” Roxas said.
This year, there will be 300,000 vehicles more on the road. The increase of the number of vehicles will continue in the coming years at the rate of 10 to 15 percent, he said.
The Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania, where Roxas got his business education should be proud of him. He can cite figures effortlessly.
Except implement a solution to the problem.
Does Roxas and for that matter Aquino and members of his cabinet have an idea of the agony of commuters who have to endure hours lining up for a seat in a shuttle bus or hours standing in an overcrowded bus that doesn’t move along EDSA?
Last Saturday, the day after the “Bad Friday” when a number of air passengers missed their flights stuck in traffic along EDSA for five to eight hours, I left the house in Las Piñas at 2:30 pm for a 4:30 p.m. meeting in Greenbelt Makati. Usually, it takes about an hour with the bus taking the Skyway.
I arrived in Greenbelt 5:30 pm. The person I was meeting had left.
Last month, I met my relatives at the airport and brought them to St. Paul University in Quezon City. We left NAIA3 a little past 2 p.m. We arrived at St. Paul past 6 p.m.
I left St. Paul almost about 8:30 p.m thinking that by that time, traffic gridlock had eased up. I could not stay much later because I had to catch up with the shuttle bus going to Las Piñas that had its last trip at about 10 p.m.
I got to the shuttle bus Makati terminal before 10 p.m. and the line of waiting passengers was about a kilometer long in a snake-like formation. Very few shuttle buses were arriving because of the traffic jam.
Tired and weary, I called TAI taxi and fortunately there was one available in Makati. We plodded through the traffic but at least I was inside the vehicle. Got home past midnight.
I’m wondering,except for one occasion that Malacañang made a big deal of it, why haven’t I read or heard the President and members of his cabinet caught in the traffic for hours like you and me? Isn’t there supposedly “a no wang-wang” policy?
The “No wang-wang” is plain B.S. Prior coordination between the Presidential Security Group and MMDA allows the President to breeze through the traffic. No need for wang-wang.
Traffic jam in Metro Manila, which translates into losses of P2.4 billion daily according to a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is no progress at all. It’s a sign of incompetent governance.
To say that it’s a sign of “booming economy” is an insult to the suffering public.
Jeman Bunyi Villanueva commented in Facebook on Roxas’ justification of the traffic burden: “I- boom kaya mukha niya?”
Why elect Mar when he already lost in 2010? He is as incompetent as Aquino. They both have mentality of Oligarchs, that they deserve better at the expense of the lowly wage earner. Looks like he wants to be president but does want the responsibility associated with it.
Ayaw kong pumangit sa galit, dioskoday!
Fo a Wharton School of Business graduate, he is a dismay!
“This is a problem in a sense that arises from prosperity. Because there is money. Because there is economic activity,” Roxas said.
Ganun, e di wow! 🙂
Ellen, nakakaiyak sa galit ang traffic experiences mo, surreal na surreal…grabe!
Band Aid Solution lang ang alam ni Roxas in terms of traffic sa MM. Please lang huwag na tayong mag elect ng pangulong tatanaw lang uli ng utang na loob at paboran ang mga may interest.
Kahit sino pa ang mag presidente ang traffic ay hindi malulunasan dahil parami ng parami ang sasakyan. Ang solusyon lang para maibsan ang traffic ay dapat every 5 years lang puwede magbenta ng sasakyan ang mga kompanya. Halimbawa 2015 may mga sasakyan na binibenta. Pag 2016 walang sasakyan na ibebenta. Pag 2020 na uli puwede mag benta ng sasakya at isang taon lang. Ganun dapat.
Pero ang ganun ay hindi mangyayari dahil bawas sa kita ng gobyerno. Mabuti kung panahon pa ni Marcos na mayaman ang Pilipinas ay okey lang na bawat 5 years lang pagbenta ng sasakyan sakali. Naghirap talaga ang Pilipinas ng mapatalsik si Marcos. Anong silbi ng kalayaan kung nagugutom naman. Kulang talaga sa pag iisip ang mga uto utong tao na sumama sa edsa para mapatalsik si Marcos. Sa buhay ay okey lang na mag ambisyon sa kung ano pero dapat isipin kung ano ang magiging epekto ng pag ambisyon sa pangkalahatan.
Sa sinulat kong ito dito ay malaman niyo na si Ferdinand E. Marcos ay hindi masama na naging pangulo ng Pilipinas. Mahal siya ng napakaraming Pilipino. Pagkatapos niyo itong basahin lahat-lahat kasama na ang naka scan na newspaper clip ay umaasa ako na kung may pagkamuhi man kayo sa kanya ay dapat mawala na iyon sa inyong sarili. Dahil kung patuloy niyo siyang kamumuhian ay patuloy niyo rin lang niloloko ang inyong sarili.
http://arvin95.blogspot.com/2011/03/edsa.html
Mahilig talaga ang mga pinoy sa holiday. Gusto pa na gawing apat na araw na lang ang working days. Mga bansa na mauunlad ay araw at gabi may mga kompanya na nag operate. Mula ng mapatalsik si Marcos gusto na ng karamihan ay pahayahay na buhay. Okey na basta may laman lang ang tiyan kahit ang laman ay kamote, saging o anu pa. Okey lang bagsak sa klase basta healthy ang katawan.
Arvin ok na si Marcos. Comment ka kay Roxas tungkol sa traffic.
Yan ang napala ng Pilipinas sa “people power” mentality…lawlessnesss..walang batas…gagawin ang gusto kahit bawal….bibili ng kotse kahit walang parking at walang lakas ng loob na limitahan ang sasakyan sa mga daan dahil baka hindi iboto ng kapartido sa ELECTION time
kasalanan ni erap at isko moreno yung traffic sa may tutuban recto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avP6c7nMN2c
Yup there is money!! Toll roads instead of just roads! Who really owns it? Partners to it?? You’re guess is as good as mine.
Tama ka #6 Arvin, ni wala man lang naka-isip na ang ugat ng problema ng Pinas ay ang pag-lobo ng population. mabuti pa si Imelda ay nagsikap na imulat ang tao kung ano ang halaga ng Family planning. sa pagdami ng tao mas malaki ang budget na ilalabas ng nakaupo para itulong kuno sa mga tao. ngayon ay lumabas ang scam sa senor citizen ng Makati sa pamamahala ng Binay admin.
Its’ because the only infrastructure we have were built by Marcos. I have no idea how Marcos built LRT, San Juanico bridge, NLEX, SLEX, IRRI, universities, hospitals, Cultural Center, PICC, Folk Arts. Twenty Nine years after Marcos and the only one built was MRT and it’s falling apart compared to LRT which is much older. Bottom line, we were taken for a ride. The Aquinos are regarded as heroes but they have not accomplished anything that helped the people. Compare Ilocos Norte vs Hacienda Luisita and you’ll see the real leaders.
If the Transport Minister starts now, it may take a few good years to put a real solution to the traffic issues but at least it should be permanent…not on a hit and miss proposition…It should create by LEGISLATION an Agency with a memorandum of understanding or agreement as to its mission and how it will carry them…a very good example of that creation is the Toronto Transit Commission a mass transit agency of the City established in l929, built is first 4 stations 4.6 miles underground subway and was operational 1954 and was built by people many who can not even understand each other languages and mostly did their communication by sign language…
Today, the Agency has built 4 rapid trains lines with 69 stations and is building another LRT line with 25 stations to complete in 2020…it is replacing its fleet of buses with articulated buses, built by Volvo low floor 60 foot long totally acccessible to further reduced the number of buses plying the roadwways.. Its new trains on its bussiest line is a 6 cars fixed linked open Gangway where passengers can move to another car all the way to the other end if coming end in a crowded car or getting out in specific point (exit) on his stop…
Without much of the Political Interference but policy guidance and Capital investment, only an Independent Transit Agency staffed by apolitical professionals transport personnel can provide continually improved Transit Service…it is not that Complicated…
mass transit project to be implemented by canada?
bakit parte na ba ng canada ang pilipinas?
bakit laging nakasingit ang canada?
any significance sa problema ng pilipinas?
bakit kaya ganyan ang mga miyembro ng gabinete ni noynoy? sobrang gagaling mangagsipagsalita pero PALPAK naman? bakit kaya hindi niya kayang sipain? ano ikinatatakot ni noynoy samantalang kaydaming mga qualified career professionals na pagpipiliang mas karapatdapat kaysa kanyang mga political appointees?
@ 17 the significance it it can done elsewhere not only by Toronto and Montreal..but also by HongKong, and everyone else with the same process why not the Philippines? that is the point of comparison…
Further, Instead of just hitting on the sitting Government which by the end of 2016 will be out and comes another govt and back to the same useless criticism that result in nothing…The problem of mobility was not just been seen or predicted during the Pnoy’s adminstration…it was there more than 30 years ago when the population started to migrate to the Metro Manila in search for better livelihood and the population settlement did not catch with its growth…nothing was done then and the do-gooders expect that Pnoy could wave his magic wand and the issues will disappear…that is a very simple solution to a very complex problem…
metro manila will be congested in the next five years and will just get worse…not better no matter who will be residing in Malacanang…
#18, di kayang pasaain ni Noynoy si Abaya kasi alam niya ang tungkol sa paghingi ng $30 million kotong from the Czech republic. Madami kasing alam ang mga tao ni noynoy na can be made public and it will be disaster. He cannot antagonize any of these people. He is beholden to death…imagine isang walang kakayahang mga Aquinos naging pangiulo ng Pilipinas….
#21 pasamain ang loob ni Abaya…remember Balsy and Eldon Cruz were being pointed out by Czeck Ambassador involved in the $30 million extortion…
As early as 2010, this administration already has the solutions – more mass rail light-train routes, the heavy railroad tracks from the Piers then to north and south Luzon, expansion of the ports in Batangas and Subic, ferry service along Pasig River, Laguna Lake expressway and flood control dike, an underground tunnel across M. Mla, a new airport/runway, upgrading of DMIA in Clark, more Skyways, more entry/exit points in SLEX/NLEX, scheduling of working shift schedules in both gov’t and private sector, fixed wages for bus drivers, and so on. If they had implemented at least two such projects per year, the whole she-bang would be completed by 2017, assuming a 3-year completion period per project. Most of these solutions have been determined by NEDA from as far back as Marcos and all they needed was to update and implement.
But alas, the slowpokes, Roxas and Abaya, in the DOTC were more concerned with investigating any and all projects of the past regime, they were so scared to implement their own huge projects without raising even a hint of corruption it consumed most of their time. What’s worse is that Noynoy didn’t push them enough, if at all.
They were holding back instead of accelerating the much-needed infrastructure upgrades. Meanwhile, the more competent DPWH is impeded by this inaction and by it’s own squabbles with MMDA, another so-so agency. This is where Noynoy should have stepped in. Instead, he canceled the Laguna dredging project which soured our relationship with Belgium, the project’s proponent country. He also stopped the Chinese contract on the North-South Rail signed by Arroyo and the project is in the freezer. Last I heard, just 2 weeks ago, Japan has offered the funding for the rail system. Of course, the JICA only provides credit only if all contract bidders are Japanese companies.
Next, some 19 projects to rehab or repair the damage brought by Ondoy and Pepeng were all canceled, the good thing is, the World Bank says the contract awardees brought their prices down, even if they were already proclaimed winners and saved the country some $45M. But at the bottom line, did we really save much? For example, the delays in the construction of classrooms could have been more expensive at the end of the day. DepEd had to enroll public school students in private schools due to classroom shortage. Is the big disparity in tuition expenses covered by whatever they saved?
I haven’t seen any activity of the P65B LRT extension project to Cavite. The concession agreement was signed by the winning sole bidder, the Mega-consortium which includes Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific and the Ayalas in October last year but already a lawyer has filed a case with the Supreme Court which dubbed the five-billion-pesos-per-kilometer project “the most disadvantageous gov’t contract of all time”. Compared to the also-controversial one-billion-per-kilometer cost of the Monumento to North EDSA LRT1 extension.
Almost all the completed projects – SCTEX, TPLEX, STAR and the NLEX links to Karuhatan and Mindanao Ave, save for the NAIA expressway, makes it easier to enter the Metropolis and get stuck in the city traffic which is like a fish trap. This further adds to our traffic woes.
I almost forgot, Noynoy also put on hold Gloria’s nautical highway expansion.
Tongue, appreciate your effort identifying all these projects that did not amount to any as our government lacks leadership, sense of urgency and incompetent. We have an OJT government. Six years is too short to train a bad leader.
While I give credit when and where it is due, to the point of being branded a “yellowtard”, I can also detect when we are just being fed bullshit. I have consistently defended this gov’t when it is wrongly accused but wouldn’t hold back and share my personal experiences when non-performers are being coddled instead of being booted out. It would be easier to just criticize and leave the thinking to whoever sits in Malacañang but our inputs are more important to fix whatever is broken. After this present gov’t leaves we will still be here fighting for our next complaints. But one problem fixed today is one problem less tomorrow.
Huwag lang tayo magsasawa. Hopefully darating din ang araw na yun. Kumilos din tayo, at least para sa atin din yon at sa pamilya natin, wag puro lang reklamo.
agree with you tongue.
Tongue, any insight on who do you think is capable to lead our country in 2016?
Honestly, wala. Gusto ko sana yung next generation of politicians, in the mold of Angara, Cayetano, Trillanes or even Lacson. But each probable candidate operates in a small, limited sphere where they are most effective. Walang generalist who can work with technocrats who are experts in their own fields. Puro political accommodations lang kaya puro politiko din ang naka-assign ngayon. I’m afraid I will be put in the same situation like the last Presidential elections. Ayun, blank vote ako noon. As much as I hated to see Villar or Erap win, I can’t find it in my conscience to vote for Noynoy.
BUT… kung si Binay din lang ang makakalamang, I will be forced to vote whoever is more popular. Tinatamad tuloy akong magpa-biometrics.