A proposal by the Management Association of the Philippines– an influential business group, whose officers and ranks perhaps have the biggest fleet of operating cars and other modes of transport in Metro Manila– had asked the Marcos administration to declare a state of calamity in MM for traffic. Another of its proposal is to designate a traffic czar/tsar– a term used for dictators and those with absolute power like a ruler or emperor in Russia. Up until the 20th century the ruler in Russia was called a czar, who really held the citizens with his might. But that is Russia– a dictatorship up until now under President Vladimir Putin, the perpetual strongman.
In the past years, the Metro Manila Development Authority general manager Thomas ‘Tim’ Orbos was often called traffic czar and so Undersecretary Alex Cabanilla in 2010 and Edison ‘Bong’ Nibreja. The result: none of their grandiose plans worked.
And now, MAP is proposing 1) a state of calamity in MM for its traffic problems and 2) the designation of a traffic czar. Again, haven’t we learned? How strong do they want the traffic czar to be– more powerful than the President?
Understandably, the problem of traffic worsens by the day but that is because the government– through tax perks– encourages car manufacturing, more than any other type of modes of transport. This just shows how dismal the performance of the public transport system is and as usual it is the consumers of public transport (commuters) more than the business community (which can afford to buy more cars at whim) that gets inconvenienced and workers report later than required by their bosses.
Add also the countless unnecessary road diggings by public utilities and ongoing constructions– hailed as the roads to progress– and the arbitrariness of road traffic rules (by enforcers) that force vehicles to cramp up in whimsically designated roads. Then the long-term gestating infrastructure projects like subways and road repairs (of usually good travel-worthy roads that are being destroyed and repaired for someone’s pockets to be lined).
Sad, but true, Coldplay’s reference to MM traffic being the world’s number 1 (out of 387 highly-urbanized countries in the world), is something we can’t be proud of but must, as a nation of individual citizens, tackle through road discipline, obedience to traffic regulations and keeping our motor vehicles roadworthy at all times, so as not to congest further the already shrinking roads.
MAP’s concern over losses caused by traffic mess to their bottomline and the productivity of their workers has prompted it to implore government to declare a calamity state.
I completely agree with MMDA GM Procopio Lipana that there is no need to appoint a traffic czar because transport agencies continuously conduct studies to ease traffic congestion in MM. But then again such studies are meaningless in easing traffic flow and the MMDA must realize its current strategies are not working but only helps them understand the causes of such a mess.
The root cause is government’s continued failure to address the public transport inefficiencies which force those with money to keep buying cars or e-vehicles so that families, officemates and friends would make it on time to school or office. The number and coding systems merely expound the project (the word must be problem) especially at the window hours when vehicles barred from the road at certain times of the day would all rush out, hence the snarls.
Also, contractors must be made to wait for the ‘lean period’ in Metro’s traffic to conduct their construction or repair works, otherwise vehicles and people will all be moving in a restricted space, thus the jams. The loading and unloading zones must be completely followed– and no exemptions please– so that drivers and passengers alike would learn to discipline themselves. Towing must be enforced on all national roads and alternate routes. Also traffic enforcers found giving in (because of extortion) to violators of traffic regulations must be removed on the spot.
MAP also wants the replication of EDSA busway system in all major thoroughfares, which on December 27, 2022 was found to be effective, proof of which is the ridership peaking at 454,000 passengers using only 550 buses.
There must also be uniformity in traffic regulations and citation tickets (not based on LGUs’ caprices) and synchronicity of traffic lights.
Lastly, the government must expand the number of operating coaches of MRT, LRT 1 and 3 and PNR to address commuter woes– to avert long queues. Only through a working public transport system can those vehicle owners be convinced to use public transport. Until then, everything else is a never-ending litany of dos and don’ts governing the uncontrollable traffic nightmare.
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