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Category Archives: Governance
On accountability, good governance and missed opportunities
Yesterday was the death anniversary of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III whom many fondly called PNoy. His administration saw many fiscal and policy reforms being implemented, resulting in perhaps the best economic performance of the country this century. Of course, they also benefitted from the developments of the previous administration but good sowing cannot result in a good harvest if what was planted was not nurtured to have a good yield in a timely manner. That goes without saying that there were also many low hanging fruits that were not picked for whatever reason the PNoy administration (his people, not necessarily PNoy) had. That included the Cebu BRT project that only recently was partly completed and operational.
Missed opportunities – I always wondered why there were no major infrastructure projects completed during the 6-year term of PNoy. I’m sure someone in the know can refute this but to most people, can we identify a major infra project completed during that time? Were there any new transportation projects like a rail or BRT line completed then? Were there new airports or terminals? Were there tollway projects completed (sections don’t count, we are talking about complete projects)? Any major bridges completed? What were completed mostly were policy and governance related items, particularly those intended to reform a system that was perceived as corrupt and inefficient. It was the same mistake the Cory administration did back in the late 1980s and early 1990s that led to energy and water crisis that the Ramos administration had to address. Of course, that administration had to deal with a lot of political destabilization attempts at the time. That administration had to deal with a lot of projects initiated or in the pipeline by the previous administration, which until now is being regarded as good examples of “what if” for transportation infrastructure. It took a long time, for example, before another mass transit line was constructed in Metro Manila. The reforms now currently being lobbied by various groups could have been done during the PNoy admin but were not. Hopefully, the current administration can catch up given some major players now including the DepDev Secretary were also involved back then.
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New wide roads lead to more crashes?
I was in Tagaytay several times the past year and recently and couldn’t help but notice all the wide and widened roads in Cavite Province. Driving our vehicle, I also noticed how many were speeding along these roads and that many refuse to give way at intersections unless it’s signalized. We caught the terrifying images of a fresh crash this morning as we traveled home from Tagaytay. There were three wrecks at the intersection of the Crisanto Delos Reyes Road and the East West Road. It took quite some time for the rescue people to get there based on how long we got stuck in traffic just a few hundred meters from the crash site.
Wide roads and aggressive driving are just two major factors or contributors towards road crashes. I wonder what are the crash rates along these roads in Cavite Province. I also wonder how fast first responders, especially medical staff, could arrive on site for these crashes. The police were there first but looked helpless and couldn’t attend to those involved in the wrecked cars. Are they even trained for first aid? Or was this part of their training to just wait for competent medical staff to arrive?
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Is it the wet season already?
It has been raining the past few days though it’s still quite hot especially from the morning til noontime. While the rains were not exactly downpours for most cases, today was probably the heaviest in terms of visibility (near zero), coverage (it was raining along my entire commute from Quezon City to Antipolo) and length (about an hour). This was what it looked like with the wipers off:
The rains are definitely welcome from the perspective of temperatures. It gives us cooler weather everywhere though short showers often lead to even hotter and humid conditions (singaw?). The flash floods also help us not to forget the anomalous and immoral actions of politicians and DPWH officials.
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No more Panay-Boracay Bridge?
The news today included two items welcomed by various groups including environmental advocates. One was about the proposed bridge connecting Boracay Island to Panay. The other was on the halt on the tree cutting related to the SALEX project. Both involved San Miguel Corporation. I wrote about the proposed bridge last April and how it was not at all a necessity considering the character of Boracay. It would have been a folly to build a bridge, free or tolled, to a small island that’s main attraction is its beaches. Unlimited, easy access would bring droves of people there and lead to faster deterioration of the conditions including the environment. If the government decides on another freeze in activities for the island to recover, that will surely mean losses for the bridge concessionaire. Do we really need to bring in more traffic to an island that’s exceeded its carrying capacity?
I have not written about the tree-cutting but have written about the loss of trees elsewhere including roads where we have done fieldwork along in the past. I recall the Kamatchile trees that used to line up along long sections of McArthur Highway in Tarlac. They’re lost now after the DPWH cut them down for their road widening projects. The same happened to other trees, including very old one that are hard to replace, along other national roads in many provinces where DPWH implemented its road widening projects despite having no demand for it in many cases. This is the problem if the main Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of the DPWH is kilometers of road widened. Of course, in this case, the question is if the tollway is actually necessary. My frustration and disappointment is that government keeps encouraging tollway development with the private sector when the biggest challenge is the development of mass transit systems for our rapidly growing cities. The incentives should go there instead of more tollways.
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Flash floods in May
It finally rained all over Metro Manila and Rizal today. This morning’s rains were light. The drizzle was enough though to prevent me from walking the dogs. The afternoon rains were more intense though in bursts rather than sustained. Still, this resulted in flash floods everywhere. The photo below shows the situation along Katipunan Road in White Plains.
The flash floods bring us again to the flood control mess that remains unresolved. It is not just a problem of the poor, or the middle class but of everyone affected by the floods. It’s just that many are more severely affected than others. The photo above might be a slight concern of the more wealthy people in that neighborhood. They probably don’t need to worry of flood waters entering their homes and damaging properties. Other people are not as lucky and have to deal with floods for a major part of the year. The suffering is real and it’s also because many chose to elect inept, incompetent and corrupt people who themselves enabled other inept, incompetent and corrupt people to proliferate and operate with no regards for morality, even humanity.
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On affordable and inclusive mobility in the Philippines
Here’s a quick share of an article from the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) about affordable and inclusive mobility. The observations and conclusions are actually familiar because these have been articulated before when the topics were brought up in the context of environmentally sustainable transport (EST).
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Article share: Why Complete Streets Design Benefits Everyone
Here is another quick share of an article; this time on Complete Streets. I guess many are aware of the AI-generated street transformations that are now being shared across many social media platforms. These show street transformations of many sections and intersections.
Source: Why Complete Streets Design Benefits Everyone
Again, it is important to have context sensitive solutions. This extends to street transformations. Some may look cool (AI tools have enabled non-architects, non-engineers, etc. to produce nice renderings) but should be tempered for the street or highway functions as well as the actual volume of people and vehicles running along these.
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Article share – My provocative proposal: Want a roadway safety movement? Ditch the engineers.
Here’s a quick share of an article on who should be involved in road safety:
Source: My provocative proposal: Want a roadway safety movement? Ditch the engineers.
How about a pop-up BRT along Commonwealth Avenue?
I posted this map on social media showing a possible route for a pop-up BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) along Commonwealth Avenue. This was inspired by the reports this week of the horrendous experience of commuters along this corridor due to the current fuel crisis. It seems that a lot of people have reduced their use of private vehicles in favor of what they thought was adequate public transportation only to find out how lacking the supply was.
While this route can be extended (all the way to Fairview via Regalado, for example), I think the one in the map below would be able to capture a majority of the commuters along the corridor with the end at Dona Carmen being a drop-off/pick-up area for those residing to the north. Quezon City Hall and the Elliptical Road is a no-brainer since the Quezon City Bus service terminates here and people can transfer to one of the other lines that will allow them to travel elsewhere covered by the bus network. Quezon City or DOTr can lease buses and come up with a service contracting scheme to sustain operations. The idea is to first run this pop-up BRT while the crisis in Iran is ongoing. Data collection and assessments should coincide with this to refine the service and perhaps, make recommendations for sustaining this service at least until MRT 7 gets online.
The idea of a pop-up BRT is not really new as there were “proof of concept” runs along Commonwealth and at BGC many years ago. Unfortunately, the BRTs never came to be in both cases; both now missed opportunities as we have come to realize. It’s still a long way before the MRT 7 is up and running. The recent announcement from the proponent that they will probably start operations next year is perceived by many as too late. Government, both national and local, need to be decisive if they want people to be able to go to their workplaces and schools. Maybe this is another opportunity for the more than 70% public transport users to be provided with the services they need while taking advantage of road space being freed up from car dominance?
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Some thoughts and reflections on transport and the Middle East crisis
Much has been said and written about the ongoing crisis brought about by the US and Israel attacking Iran and the latter retaliating. The prices of fuel have risen rapidly over the past weeks. Consequently, the prices of commodities have also risen. The Philippines is still very much dependent of fossil fuels for transportation with most travel using road-based transport. Even public transportation relies heavily on fossil fuels as buses and jeepneys are mostly using diesel engines. Even paratransit such as trikes and motorcycle taxis use gasoline.
While the energy mix in the country has become more diversified with renewables now having a substantial share, majority of power is produces using coal and natural gas. And so e-powered vehicles are also ultimately dependent on these fuels. Could we have had better transport that could have made our cities more resilient in light of the conflict in the Middle East? Probably, and if we followed and implemented the plans for mass transit systems that were laid out decades ago. Of course, this is already moot and academic given the current situation. The counterfactuals though point to better commuting conditions if projects have not been delayed or shelved.
A colleague and I were just discussing about how MRT 7 could have contributed to the reduction of car use along the Commonwealth Avenue corridor if it was completed according to the original schedule. That was 2019. Even with delays including the impact of the pandemic, it could have been completed a few years ago. If it was operational in 2023, commuters could have already shifted to rail from both private and public road-based transport modes. There was also actually a proposal for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along Commonwealth about 2 decades ago. That could have been constructed and operational ahead of Line 7 and could have already disrupted commuting preferences along the corridor if it were operated as a true BRT.
There’s just a lot of opportunities already missed that could have alleviated the fuel crisis we have now. Maybe we are really heading towards a bigger crisis when all these price increases lead to a more sweeping increase in the prices of commodities? We hope it doesn’t come to that but we seem to be helpless in this situation where we are caught unprepared for a war we are have nothing to do with.
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