Testing P-Noy’s political will

The thing I like about P-Noy is how he delivers results by a single-minded focus on an issue. This is often called political will. Most politicians hem and haw and put political expediency ahead of national good. Not P-Noy.

From the impeachment of former Chief Justice Corona to the passage of the RH bill and the Sin tax measure, P-Noy has demonstrated he is made of a different stuff from our run of the mill politicians. Now, I have two issues which I hope he would take on. How he handles these issues could also be a good test of his determination to make good governance a hallmark of his watch.

The first issue is Boracay. We have a gem of an island that is internationally acclaimed as a leisure paradise. It is our tourism industry’s main attraction. But it is under serious threat from reckless and over development. Some people are just focused on what they can get from it now and do not care about the future.

I just read a report on the abs-cbnnews website about how Boracay’s formerly pristine white sandy beach is now turning brown. I have also heard reports that during summer, some parts of the beach turn green. Contamination with human waste is a foregone conclusion even if connection to a waste treatment plant has been made mandatory.

A serious E. coli contamination is an event waiting to happen. If it does, that will kill the precious tourism goose laying all those golden eggs. If that happens, it may be enough to set back our tourism development efforts by years.

It is good to know that the government is not waiting for some environmental catastrophe to happen in the island.  Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez was reported to have said at least 80 establishments on Boracay island face demolition by the end of March this year for building too close to the water line.

According to the abs-cbnnews.com report, Jimenez said a government task force, composed of the tourism, environment, health, justice and interior and local government departments, has already ordered the establishments to self-demolish. None have complied so far.

A stakeholders group welcomed the government demolition order. Speaking to ANC, Boracay Foundation Inc. director and beach front resort owner Nenette Graf welcomed the government order saying it will help restore the beauty of Boracay’s beaches. The order will re-establish the easement portion area of the four-kilometer white sand beach in Boracay.

“This is a welcome move from our side, the stakeholders. I think it is about time that we protect our white beach, to preserve it. At this point in time, we are really at a panic because our beach... is becoming brown already,” she said.

Graf admitted that some resort owners deliberately violated the rules after seeing other establishments do the same thing. “Now, it’s payback time,” she said.

It is too bad the local government is inept. Now the national government must step in. Everyone is watching to see if government can carry out its order or if it is all just press releases as is usual in the past leaderships.

Then there is the matter of EDSA traffic. Right now, our officials are merely dancing around the problem. One very clear course of action is to reduce the number of buses on EDSA. There are just too many of them as is obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

There are supposed to be a number of JICA studies that concluded only 1,600 buses are needed to ply the EDSA route. But at the time of the latest study, the number of is 3,700.

I have actually seen reports that estimated the actual number of buses to as high as 12,000. If that is so, how do you fit some 12,000 buses into two lanes on Edsa that can only accommodate 1,600?

A study made by researchers from the UP College of Engineering has concluded that there is an oversupply of buses on the EDSA route of about 60 percent. The study also concluded that this oversupply situation leads to a low load factor which suggests a minimal profit for the operators along EDSA and a prolonged travel time for the passengers.

“This is the reality we are facing today. This will not change unless we do something about it,” MMDA chair Francis Tolentino was reported to have said. The onus is on the LTFRB to cut the number of franchises it had issued and strictly police the practice of using one franchise for a number of buses… the “kabit” system.

Way back in July 24, 2009, I wrote a column on this topic. I made an observation based on simple economic terms… the matter of fare setting. If the buses can make money on that kind of load factor, the fares set by the LTFRB must be too high.

I pointed out that those buses are also wasting precious foreign exchange used to buy imported fuel if they are operating at such low load factor. This situation also needlessly contributes to smog pollution and greenhouse gases, something that’s deleterious to our health.

But, why are the bus operators investing large sums of money on new buses to ply the EDSA route given the low load factor. It stands to reason that if business is bad because of the MRT and tough competition from a surplus of capacity, they wouldn’t insist on being there. No one stays in business to lose money.

One explanation offered is that the bus operators are not using a rational business model. If they are able to make enough money to satisfy the driver and conductor and something to enable the operator to have some spending money in his pocket, they are satisfied.

They apparently do not factor the loans they have made to buy the buses. That’s a long-term concern and their horizon is extremely short term.

If the LTFRB is doing its job, it would see to it that not only should the routes be adequately served but that the operators make a reasonable return on investment. That is why the LTFRB must continually do market surveys where they measure demand for bus seats on particular routes and must match the need with the supply.

The fact that there is an excess of bus units on EDSA means the LTFRB had been remiss in its duties all these years. Peg the bus fares to the MRT fares. Lower the bus fares now and let economic concerns do the job of trimming the number of buses running in that route.

Of course, this requires political will. I am wondering if the present administration will have the cojones to do what it should where other administrations failed.

One former LTFRB chairman once told me that there are areas in the provinces where bus operators are charging less than half the authorized rates because of competition. That proves to me the LTFRB is not doing a good job of rate setting. The fares on EDSA are too high because despite low load factor, operators still insist on plying that route.  

Cutting down the number of buses on EDSA won’t necessarily make the drivers and conductors jobless. The operators culled out of EDSA can be re-deployed in other underserved routes in the metro area and the rest of the country. Just look at all those commuters hanging out of jeepneys during rush hours and see the need for a more effective transport mode.

So, there we have it. Two burning issues that demand the exercise of political will for making the tough decisions needed. I am sure if P-Noy gets involved in managing these issues, the tough decisions will be made.

The right things to do are so obvious in both the Boracay and the EDSA cases. People are tired of seeing no real action through the years.  

I hope P-Noy makes the right moves as a no nonsense president would. If he depended on the bureaucrats, it would just be more of the same and all to the detriment of public interest.

Ay mali

Jose Villaescusa sent this one.

JUN: Pre, pinagtatawanan ka ng mga kapitbahay mo ah..ang ingay nyo daw mag-lambingan ng misis mo kagabi!

CHITO: Hahaha...gago ba sila? Eh wala naman ako sa bahay kagabi!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco