Just get projects done, please?

The last time I talked to Ramon Ang about his airport project at some length was October last year. At that time, he was so sure he would be able to break ground by October this year. It is now stalled.

I pointed out to him that his project will be delayed by government regulators. But RSA protested, “why should government delay? I am risking private capital and I am using private land. And there is an urgent need for the airport.”

RSA is right. We needed a decent airport many years ago and we are still dreaming of one today. Government doesn’t have what it takes to even make the horrible Terminal 1 half decent and complete Terminal 3.

If I were P-Noy, I would welcome private initiatives like Mr. Ang’s. At the most, government should just be concerned with making sure Mr Ang’s airport complies with international standards for airports. Then perhaps, put in some safeguards so that San Miguel will not exact unfair rates on airlines and passengers using the airport.

But even there, market forces will likely prove to be a better regulator of usage rates than government. Assuming Mr. Ang’s airport is in Naic, Cavite or Bulacan, Bulacan, a good way of making sure rates remain reasonable is for government to keep operating NAIA. Those who don’t want to pay RSA’s rates can go on using NAIA.

The point I have been trying to make for the longest time is that government must welcome private initiative for needed infrastructure not just in words but in deeds. Why would anyone in their right minds delay such initiatives?

I can understand why government will hesitate to go along with another airport proposal at Sangley. That requires reclamation and the use of existing government land. More safeguards are necessary to make sure there is no sweetheart deal between government officials and the proponent. There are also more serious environmental concerns about reclamations.

Budget Secretary Butch Abad blames government’s “technical deficit” as the reason why their infrastructure projects are stalled. In a private sector initiated project, that will not be the worry of government.

As reported by my colleague Jarius Bondoc, “Abad said that planning a railway project would need at least three kinds of engineers: for rails, for systems, and for signals. That’s just for starters. Running such transport mode also would require electrical, electronics, mechanical, civil, structural, and industrial engineers, and info-technologists.”

Alam pala nila. How come, instead of engineers, Mar Roxas brought in a platoon of lawyers as usecs in DOTC instead? And why did they reject the proposal of MVP to assume all the legal, financial and technical problems of MRT 3 and pay DOTC royalty on top of all that?

A President who wants to leave a solid mark must put up a one-stop shop with more powers than the PPP Center to process such private initiatives and impose on his bureaucrats a short deadline to deliver the order to proceed. That’s not happening. There are even suspicions that the intention for what looks like bureaucratic delaying tactics is less than honorable.

It was incredulous for a PPP bureaucrat to say that because the success of the NAIA Expressway bidding showed private sector enthusiasm, they are revising their projects to be 100-percent PPP. That’s what I have been saying here since the year P-Noy assumed office. 

In fact, I criticized the decision of Mar Roxas to shift to ODA financing for DOTC projects because he said, it was cheaper. Of course Mar didn’t factor currency risk and the strings tied to ODA like expensive consultants and the limitation of buying needed components from donor country vendors.

Mr. Ang and MVP, whose origins are of humble means and not of our traditional elite, have been most enthusiastic about investing in big infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are close-in advisers of P-Noy who backbite them in typical Pinoy crab mentality.

This is why both of them are now looking elsewhere to invest. In the case of MVP, he got Meralco to invest in a power plant in Singapore as their own investment in a new power plant we badly need here remains in limbo.

P-Noy must realize these two industrialists are his biggest allies to prove his point that there is sufficient capital within the country and there is no urgent need to amend the Constitution. I remember Mr. Ang saying as much. He replied to a question that a failure to amend is not such a bad thing because it provides local capitalists more opportunities to invest in their own country.

This now reminds me of another Filipino entrepreneur, this time one who is not as big as RSA or MVP but equally enthusiastic about investing for needed infrastructure here. Francis Yuseco Jr. used to work in local and international investment banks and who has pioneered the concept of a Bus Rapid Transit System.

I had a talk with him and former Sen. Rene Saguisag who is helping him on the legal side of his proposal. According to Yuseco, the BRT system is cheaper in terms of capital and maintenance expenses, faster to put in place and easily adaptable to our unique needs than a rail-based system. Indeed, that so-called UP monorail DOST is testing is more of an elevated BRT as it runs on tires, not rails.

I have seen BRT work in faraway Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang province. We need BRT in EDSA if only because it limits the right number of buses to a dedicated lane they cannot deviate from under any circumstance. Commuters must ride and go down at definite points. The buses are on specific schedules too.

The last time I talked to DOTC Sec. Jun Abaya, he said the President is aware of a BRT proposal for Cebu City and Ayala in Makati. But Sec Jun said, P-Noy wants a proof of concept which they will have at some unspecified date along Commonwealth Avenue.

I can understand the difficulty of introducing the system in a built up area like Cebu City and Ayala, Makati where buses and jeepneys already have franchises to operate. But Yuseco told me he has offered the government an opportunity to test it in a new emerging area at no cost to the taxpayers.

Yuseco is proposing to build an at-grade system in the emerging bay area where THE SM MOA and a growing number of call centers and establishments already are. He estimates at least 400,000 people do daily business there and are in need of public transport.

He proposes to build a 5.3 kilometer line that will pick up passengers from the MRT-LRT stations at the corner of Taft Avenue and Buendia, go through the Macapagal Avenue to MOA and to Taft Edsa. It will operate 24/7 to benefit the BPO workers there.  A second loop can be put up to cover the four airport terminals. He said he will match the non aircon rate of buses for fare.

Total capex for the first loop is P954 million all locally financed: P500 million is for the rolling stocks operations and P454 Million for the station common amenities to serve all the converging passengers from all three mass transit systems. Yuseco’s proposal will cost nowhere near the P70 billion estimated cost of a monorail system for the Bonifacio Global City.

We ought to try this simple mass transit approach before more jeepneys and colorum buses start populating the MOA bay area and create the same mess we have elsewhere in the city. A more organized mass transit system that will not require the massive capex of rail-based systems is called for in this new emerging tourist and business area.

The SM convention center and the new five star hotels and casinos in the area will demand civilized mass transport. Our call center workers need safe transport too, not jeepneys and FX taxis where they can be harassed or victimized by criminal elements.

The best part of this simple mass transit system is that they can put it up fast… before P-Noy exits… even in time for the APEC meeting. I think this private initiative needs all out Palace support. It is our last hope to get something decent by way of transport infrastructure done amidst the admitted failure of DOTC to deliver anything before 2016.

As I asked last Friday, P-Noy must do a Spoelstra, put his team in line and produce some winning baskets in the second half. That’s the challenge.

Overheard

Someone e-mailed me that he overheard a P-Noy official say “I have been accused of being indecisive. Frankly, I am not so sure.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco