P-Noy should tour Asean

The best news that came out of the recently held Asean summit in Vietnam is the fact that P-Noy attended it and got top level exposure outside his comfort zone. Of all our recent presidents, P-Noy appears to be the least traveled. When we interviewed him as a candidate he said he has not gone out of the country for quite a while and that his passport was expired. He said he does not intend to travel much outside the country if elected President.

That endeared him to us during the campaign because it presented him in sharp contrast to Ate Glue who, always with a large entourage, traveled needlessly around the world at huge expense to the taxpayers. We welcomed P-Noy’s statement that he will keep his foreign travels to a minimum.

But after his US trip and last week, Hanoi, I am changing my mind. I now think he should spend time to visit the other major Asean capitals even if only for a day or two each. A visit to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and of course, Singapore, would open his eyes to how much we have been left behind. Hopefully that would challenge him to do something with a sense of urgency to try to catch up.

Even in Vietnam, P-Noy should have learned more than few things. He mentioned the rice growing prowess of Vietnam and said we could learn from them. And then, while he was there, the billion dollar Intel assembly and test facility that should have been here was inaugurated. I hope he asked around what made Vietnam more desirable for an investor like Intel than the Philippines.

I am afraid that having kept himself cloistered in Times Street and in the shooting ranges with only the likes of Rico Puno to talk to may have made his thinking more insular than could be to-lerated of a nation’s primary leader. Seeing the progress in those Asean capitals will also hopefully bring a sense of humility that he and his close-in aides in Malacanang badly need these days.

Just take mass transport for example. Why can’t we have a mass transit system as good as Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok when Manila was more developed than any of those cities as late as the early 70s? I know because I visited them all in 1969 as part of a UP Student Council delegation. Iniwan na tayo ng milya milya. If P-Noy gets the chance to see their mass transit system and even take a ride in one of their trains, he may just be challenged to put fire under the asses of his own officials to make ours happen a lot quicker.

Then there is Putrajaya… the seat of government in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur near the ultra modern international airport. Seeing Putrajaya may just give P-Noy ideas. Ate Glue talked of establishing our own Putrajaya in Clark but it never got beyond her speeches. And yes, the express train that connects the KL International Airport to Kuala Lumpur is something we need to have between Clark and Fort Bonifacio.

Let us not even talk of Singapore because we cannot hope to do anything they are doing now anytime soon. But P-Noy must go and see Singapore too if only to have an idea of how a developing nation can graduate to First World status. I also visited Singapore in 1969 and it was nowhere near what it is now.

Jakarta will round up P-Noy’s education because if Indonesia can do it, there is absolutely no reason why we can’t. But in infrastructure alone, roads and highways, we are way behind. If seeing Jakarta isn’t going to tweak his pride as a Filipino that we can do as much as the Indonesians, I don’t know what will. Meeting Indonesia’s President will also give P-Noy ideas on how to be honest but still be effective.

Going around Asean will also serve to introduce him to Asean leaders. He could learn more than a thing or two from Indonesia’s SBY, Malaysia’s Razak and Singapore’s BG Lee. Like it or not, he will be measured against these leaders by the world community. He might as well know what he is up against. Most importantly, these leaders have outstanding records in governance and merely conversing with them should give P-Noy a good education.

This is one time I think it will be worthwhile for the Filipino taxpayer to spend money to send our President on an Asean tour. It will expand his horizons, spark his imagination and maybe, he could move his administration into much higher gear than it had been over the last hundred or so days.

Before I forget, I saw on CNBC the other night that the Malaysians just released their roadmap for economic development that will see them graduate to developed status by 2020. P-Noy should get a briefing on that in the presence of his economic planning secretary. We need a good economic plan written in plain language that could be explained to every Filipino to give us a sense of direction and purpose. Ate Glue just patched things together and called it a medium term development plan which she constantly changed on whim. No wonder we feel lost.

P-Noy said he got a number of invitations to visit various countries but he is reluctant to accept any of them for now. We hope he will reconsider and visit the Asean capitals. Let us put that old presidential plane to good use. An Asean tour for P-Noy should definitely be scheduled soonest.

NAIA 3

Speaking of inadequate infrastructure, I got this e-mail from Dr. Bernardo A. Torres, III of Baybay, Leyte who is addressing his complaint to P-Noy.

Can your print this letter so our President can read it? I took a Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Tacloban last Oct. 24, at the very beautiful NAIA 3. My wife and I checked in smoothly and went about paying the terminal fee of P200 each, after which there was an unusual Verification counter to check on our terminal fee receipts. The two people there were just stamping something after looking at our terminal tickets.

I felt good that they are making sure our government is not being shortchanged by bogus terminal tickets. When we entered our gate assignment 116, we were dismayed to see a lot of people there sitting on the floor, standing and walking around because there were no more seats!

In other words Gate 116 was overcrowded! The air-conditioning was inadequate because of the overcrowding. Babies were crying probably because of the heat. There was just chaos in the area! I could not see the difference I experienced when I was younger and was waiting for my boat at the pier terminal in Manila!

I complained to a person wearing a Cebu Pacific uniform and he told me that it has been like that it had been like this lately because AirPhilippines is also using the terminal! OMG, that terminal is supposed to handle a lot of airlines and not only 2!

Where are the people who are paid to handle our airports properly? We are the boss here, as what you have said Mr. President. I think you should kick some ass. Let us not waste a beautiful terminal. And I don’t want you, Mr. President to be a part of that.

STAR expressway

And here’s another e-mail from an OFW asking about the STAR expressway.

My name is Deo Ilagan an OFW worker and a Batangueno. I am a constant reader of your column at Phil. Star. I like your insight about Philippine economy.

I think our present Government is slow on implementing infrastructure projects. Another thing is I am wondering why the construction of STAR Tollway (Lipa-Balagtas) was stopped and allowed to collect toll fee even if the completed road is only one way. At present, we are using this highway as two-way lanes and many accidents have already occurred. You can see for yourself the danger specially at night. The shoulder is narrow and the canal is too close to the road.

I am also wondering what happened to SLEX / STAR connected highway they said will be open by July 2010. It is now November and it is still closed.

Midnight caller

Artemio Tipon sent this one.

A married couple was asleep when the phone rang at 2 in the morning. The wife picked up the phone, listened a moment and said “How should I know, that’s 20 kilometers from here!” and hung up.

The husband said, “Who was that?”

The wife answered, “I don’t know, some woman wanting to know if the coast is clear.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>