Right-of-way snags retard progress

I was going through a checklist of Ate Glo’s promises made during her State of the Nation Address this year. It occurred to me that many of the things she said she was going to do had to do with making the bureaucracy responsive. Many of the problems are age old. Many of the beautiful plans she said she would deliver were inherited from previous administrations.

Take that one concerning the modernization of the North Luzon Tollways. That was originally part of the so-called flagship projects of the Ramos administration. The project only needs three years to complete. But it has taken seven years to plan, get regulatory approval, negotiate international financing and up to now, they are still trying to clear the right of way. Three Presidents from Ramos to Erap and now GMA have presided over ceremonial groundbreaking ceremonies.

In the meantime, the consortium working on the project has capitalized close to P2 billion in pre-operating costs. That includes the cost of two new lanes from Angeles to Sta. Ines, the eight kilometer portion in Subic and the widening of the bridges from Balintawak to San Fernando. Imagine close to P2 billion not earning a single centavo in returns for the last seven years. And assuming all things go well and construction can start early next year, there are still three more years of construction time before the proponents see their first centavo back.

A consortium of international banks has agreed to finance the project but laid down some conditions that must be satisfied before the first dollar can be drawn. The last remaining hurdle has to do with securing the right of way. In the process of expanding the expressway and building new interchanges, private land must be secured. It is the government’s responsibility to deliver to the consortium the right of way.

Securing the right of way has proven to be easier said than done. This is largely why the project can’t get started in earnest. Funding the right of way is a major problem but government solved that by asking the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to provide that. Then there is the judicial process that must be hurdled, specially in cases where expropriation of property have to be resorted to.

The logjam can’t be blamed solely on the executive branch. It is a whole system. This is why development projects in this country proceed at such a snail’s pace and why costs escalate in terms of financing charges and commitment fees paid to multilateral aid agencies. Unfortunately, in the case of the North Luzon Tollways, the project has raised expectations from the people of Central and Northern Luzon because it had been announced eons ago. Now that the President hails from Central Luzon, hopes are high that the project will finally be started and completed.

Right of way problems also explain why the Northrail project – that will supposedly connect Clark with Fort Bonifacio and on to NAIA – couldn’t progress. The Philippine National Railways owns the right of way, on paper, but thousands of squatters have claimed the railroad tracks as their own. Because of "that stupid Lina Law", the squatters have the upper hand, at the expense of the greater public interest. Northrail is vital to the development of Clark.

Actually, not all of the squatters there deserve our pity and concern. Many are professional squatters or are "renting" from squatter syndicates. Many are well off. They thrive on the belief that government will never gather the political will to take them out of there to give way to vital infrastructure projects.

Part of the North Luzon Tollways project involves connecting C-5 to the expressway through Mindanao Ave. in Quezon City, cutting through Quirino Ave. in Novaliches and out to the expressway. This will decongest the Balintawak exit and open up a new access for the tollways other than through EDSA. I surveyed the right of way route with some of the officials of the consortium some years back and I noticed that many of the so-called squatters live in concrete houses with air conditioning yet. Poor, they are not.

I guess decisively dealing with right of way problems is the ultimate test of the administration’s determination to deliver on its promise of developing needed infrastructure. In the case of the North Luzon Tollways, it seems that they are almost there. But I will believe it when I see it. In the meantime, don’t blame the project proponents or the bankers for the delay. This right of way problem is something that is beyond their control.

Justice delayed

Congratulations to the Supreme Court for taking decisive action that serves notice to lower courts that they have to improve their efficiency in the disposition of cases. Justice delayed is justice denied. And because time is money, delays in the country’s judicial system also discourage investors.

The sanction imposed by the High Court on Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchitorena is just one of the moves taken by the Davide Court to speed up the disposition of cases. One other project that it is quietly undertaking has to do with encouraging out-of-court arbitration. Belle Abaya, who once was the spokesperson of former President Ramos, spearheaded that project.

Belle has taken graduate courses in arbitration in the United States and is now a doctoral candidate in that field. She came home for a few months early this year to undertake the training of personnel who will carry out the arbitration program of the Supreme Court. I hear that initial results have been very encouraging.

The process actually makes sense. We can decongest the court dockets of their backlog of cases if this process of arbitration is more widely practiced. Many of the cases are anyway, simple collection cases, interpretation of commercial contracts or family disputes that are well suited to arbitration.

Perhaps the Supreme Court should also try to limit the cases they take on, as is the practice of the US Supreme Court. I don’t know if this requires a constitutional amendment but the Supreme Court should only take on cases that involve an important issue of law, those that will enrich jurisprudence. The way it is now, we might just as well abolish the Court of Appeals because practically everything they decide is elevated to the Supreme Court anyway.

We have become a very litigious society, which is why we can’t move on. Nothing anyone does is final until the Supreme Court says so... after 10 years or more.

Second opinion

Dr. Ernie E didn’t send this one about a doctor. Marilyn Mana-ay Robles, who once worked for a pharmaceutical company, did.

One doctor husband and his wife are having a fight at the breakfast table. Husband gets up in a rage and says, "and you are no good in bed either" and storms out of the house.

After sometime he realizes he was nasty and decides to make amends and rings her up. She comes to phone after many rings and the irritated husband says, "what took you so long to answer the phone?"

She says, "I was in bed".

"In bed this late, doing what"?

"Getting a second opinion" she says.

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])