Poverty: A license to operate rolling coffins?

No doubt, last Friday, national newspapers had a ball reporting the speech of Japanese envoy Kojiro Takano before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati where he bluntly stated that "the Japanese in the Philippines fear for their safety and potential investors are confounded by conflicting policies and a growing budget deficit". The media paid special attention when the Japanese envoy said, "I have so far spent one year (in the Philippines), but… I did not have even one night I could sleep well. Almost every day is a daily threat. We are under constant danger."

Among the Ambassador’s other grievances aside from the peace and order problem, were the government’s policies which changes from time to time… giving the impression that the Japanese were helpless in solving them. He cited the sudden shifts in the tax system for automotive imports, resulting in an "unreasonable system of customs duties," and "hastily conducted environmental inspections" which are used merely to impose vague fines, as problems, including infrastructure and labor problem. All of these were relayed to President Arroyo by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), but have not yet been acted upon.

But instead of accepting Ambassador Takano as an unbiased critic and listening to his complaints… people are chastising him for telling the truth about us. Perhaps, this is the very reason why the Philippines is still struggling today… because we just can’t accept the whole damn truth that Ambassador Takano was right that we do have real and critical problems in this country which need to be addressed if we are to change our image as an investors’ haven. However, I was rather dismayed that the Japanese Ambassador issued his personal apologies for making that statement… I would have more respect for him if only he stuck to his guns… after all, we Filipinos needed to be jolted into the reality that there’s just a lot of things needing to be fixed in this country.

* * *

Talking about fixing this country. A case in point was something that happened a few years ago during the Presidency of then President Fidel V. Ramos who came to visit Cebu, where he made a comment… that Cebu City was dirty. Instead of accepting the Presidential observation with a positive view as a constructive criticism… then Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia chastised the President for making that snide remark, even pointing out that Metro Manila was just as dirty or worse!

Here we are, elated by the fact that President Arroyo (GMA) has come back with not just the proverbial bacon, but the whole pig of investments totalling P3 billion or more that we can expect to be plunked into our investment starved country… but the reality is, too many foreign investors have been burned for opening up shop in the Philippines… thanks to many anti-business policies and pro-labor attitude of many of our people, including the labor arbiters and judges.

These people apparently think that being pro-business is anti-labor which are two different things! Hence, for as long as we’ve got the wrong notion that helping businesses is anti-labor, foreign investments in this country would come in trickles. Just a case in point is the still closed Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. (ACMDC) which shut down in 1994, which until now is being barricaded by militant labor unions who place coffins in front of the guard house. Tell me what foreign investor will plunk money into this closed venture when they are prevented from reopening by the very people that forced the copper mine to close? Until and unless we truly achieve a new status as a haven for foreign investors, jobless Filipinos can never find jobs here at home. Now didn’t we say that the way to eradicate poverty is through jobs? Well, let’s decide once and for all… whether we want jobs or not? If we do, then we should welcome the foreign investors because the local businessmen simply just don’t have the capital to bring in enough jobs for our people.

* * *

Talking about poverty. Poverty apparently is fast becoming the license for those operating public transportation (including rolling coffins) business to get away with anything. Yes, I’m referring you to the collision between WG & A’s Super Ferry 12 and the wooden M/V San Nicolas the other week which brings us back to the question why wooden ships are still allowed for passenger use? With the sinking of the M/L Gretchen off the Port of Cadiz years back… we would have thought that wooden-hulled vessels were already phased out.

But in the end, wooden-hulled vessels are still very much around plying the treacherous seas from Cebu to Siquijor, Bohol, Masbate or Camotes. I’m sure that there are many more wooden-hulled vessels are plying many other islands, like Catanduanes, Polillo Islands, Marinduque or Romblon. Unfortunately, we don’t go to these islands, so we can only second-guess that if they are allowed here in the Visayas… they should be allowed in the other places.

But so far, in response to the recent sea mishap, we’ve only seen the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) remove Coast Guard personnel from the town of Coron where the M/V San Nicolas came from. But no one seems to be talking about phasing out wooden vessels.

The reality is, the problem facing our transportation industry… and I mean air, land and sea, is that our government regulators have always sided more with transport operators rather than the passengers. This is why until now, wooden-hulled vessels continue to operate and why, rolling coffins whether they’re buses, jeepneys or taxicabs serving commuters, posing grave danger to their safety. What we really like to see is for the DOTC to strictly enforce rules governing the transport industry even if it means retiring old taxicabs, jeepneys, wooden vessels or airplanes because they pose a safety hazard to our commuters.

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.