Jimmy in earnest

Transportation Secretary Jaime “Jimmy” Bautista is an earnest man trying to seal his and President Marcos’ legacy of easing the country’s economic losses from the cursed traffic problem of Metro Manila before the President’s term ends in 2029.

In his first sit down with members of the Monday Circle at the Westin Hotel in Ortigas Monday this week, Secretary Bautista laid out the Department of Transportation’s progress so far in bringing to fruition some of the ambitious railway projects of the government that is intended to ease traffic and make the economy more productive.

The Philippines, of course, has been way behind its neighbors in building up its mass transport system and has instead been heavily reliant on a fragmented and even outdated bus, jeepney and even tricycle transport system.

The growing predominance of two-wheeled or motorcycle transport has only added to an already chaotic and ill-regulated transport system.

According to the studies regularly being conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an implementing agency of Japanese official development aid (ODA) that supports socioeconomic development, recovery or economic stability of developing regions, the economic cost of traffic congestion in Metro Manila in 2012 amounted to a substantial P2.5 billion a day.

However, that cost continues to escalate as the traffic problem continues to fester. A 2017 follow-up study of JICA, according to Secretary Bautista, showed the cost jumping up to P3.5 billion a day, and still the traffic congestion problem remains unresolved.

Based on the latest calculation of JICA, as of 2021 (just as the Philippines was emerging from the COVID lockdown that had halted economic activity for close to two years), Secretary Bautista cited, the cost of traffic congestion is now estimated at P4.9 billion, or close to P5 billion a day -- a mind-boggling amount!

Mentally calculating the continuing daily losses from traffic as economic activity has resumed since 2022 should be a cause for despair for all.

The figures cited by the DOTr Secretary is for Metro Manila alone. For surrounding areas like Cavite, Bulacan and Laguna, he said, the cost has been estimated at P2.5 billion a day.

Based on those numbers, Secretary Bautista stressed, “we really need to complete these projects as soon as possible.”

The cost of traffic congestion, Secretary Bautista pointed out, includes the actual cost of lost opportunity. It also highlights the emotional loss due to less time for families to bond and spend quality time with each other.

Imagine how productive Filipinos could be if they could get to work more quickly and efficiently instead of having to spend a minimum of two to three hours (on a good day) to get to work, free from stress and fresh and ready to focus on the work to be done.

The answer, of course, lies in completing several key railway projects that include the North-South Commuter Railway, the Metro Manila Subway project, as well as the light rail projects - MRT and LRT extension projects.

ROW problems

According to Secretary Bautista, the common major “issues” (problem is a more apt term) is the Right of Way (ROW) negotiations, the perennial bane of all infrastructure projects in the country that has delayed and continues to critically affect government projects.

ROW problems include relocation and resettlement, as well as compensation of informal settler families and valuation of properties that are needed for the government railway projects.

He admitted that a major conflict usually comes from “payment and agreement by the owners on valuation...if we don’t agree on the valuation, we have to resort to expropriation, which is costly and time consuming... it takes longer.”

Expropriation, Bautista explained, is a tedious process, with only the Office of the Solicitor General endowed with the power to take expropriation action, and unfortunately, there is a shortage of lawyers assigned to the task force.

Likewise, the DOTr Secretary revealed, expropriation cases need coordination to schedule hearings. However, the DOTr, through the kindness of the Supreme Court, has been able to set up special courts for expropriation in different regions to help solve the problems, bolstering Secretary Bautista’s optimism that the Marcos administration will be able to partially open and operate some of the railway projects intended to provide mass transport and thus ease the Metro’s traffic congestion, with less motor vehicles clogging the roadways.

Fortunately, Secretary Bautista said, an interagency task force has been created by President Marcos, through Administrative Order 19, to address the issue.

The chairman is the Secretary of the DOTr along with the Secretaries of the Departments of Budget and Management, Finance, Human Settlements and Urban Development and the Interior and Local Government.

The guidelines, he said, have actually been finalized and signed by all the members of the task force to solve major issues on payment and agreement by the owners on the valuation.

(To be continued)