Bishop directs traffic

MANILA, Philippines - It took a man of the cloth to finally untangle a major traffic gridlock.

Coming from mass in Sto. Tomas, Batangas last Sunday, Archbishop Emeritus of Manila Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales found himself stuck in the middle of a major traffic jam, not moving an inch in nearly 40 minutes.

Despite the rain, the 83-year-old bishop put on a hooded navy blue jacket, zipped it all the way up to conceal his pectoral cross,  got out of his car and walked to the front of the long line of cars. 

Five vehicles were gridlocked at an intersection, causing a traffic build-up of an estimated 200 other vehicles.

“I approached the driver of one of the five vehicles and told him that 200 vehicles are stuck in traffic because they are in the wrong way,” he said.

He managed to make the five vehicles move and give way, opening up the intersection to enable traffic to flow.

Rosales had just celebrated mass in Sto. Tomas and was in a hurry to return to St. Joseph Seniorate, a retirement home for priests in Lipa, Batangas, where people were waiting to meet with him.

“They did not recognize me because I was wearing a jacket, but later on somebody did recognize me because the jacket’s zipper went down and they saw my pectoral cross,” he said.

“It is really lamentable how some people tend to behave,” he said.

 Traffic to drive away tourists   

Traffic on land and in the air will drive away 10 million foreign tourists expected to visit the country this year.

Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza presented this picture to  Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. during a hearing of the House of Representatives appropriations committee on the proposed P3.6-billion budget for tourism next year.

“There is horrendous traffic in the air and monstrous traffic on the ground,” Atienza said. “That situation I think discourages foreign tourists from coming to our shores.”

Agreeing with Atienza, Jimenez said he is not happy with the traffic congestion on land and in the air, including the airport and its environs.

The Department of Tourism will miss the 10-million foreign tourist arrivals targeted this year by almost half, he added.

From January to June, 2.6 million tourists arrived in the country, Jimenez said.

“By yearend, we hope to break through the five-million mark,” he said.

Atienza said that’s 50-percent off the mark.

Peace and order is another factor that turns off tourists from visiting the country, Atienza said.        

“Try walking along MH del Pilar street in Manila’s tourist belt or the Intramuros area late at night and you will feel that you are not safe,” he said.

However, foreign tourists have given feedback that they feel safe in Manila, Jimenez said.

 Roxas also to blame       

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II is also to blame for the worsening traffic mess in Metro Manila and other urban centers, according to Valenzuela City Rep Sherwin Gatchalian.

When he was secretary of transportation, Roxas did nothing to ease the burden of hundreds of thousands of motorists and commuters, he added. 

Gatchalian took issue with the statement of Roxas that traffic congestion, particularly along major thoroughfares in the National Capital Region, is a sign of economic growth and therefore good.

“Secretary Roxas’ analysis of the horrendous traffic being a sign of economic growth is twisted,” he said. “Such interpretation is unexpected of Roxas, who used to be the secretary of DOTC,” or the Department of Transportation and Communications.  

Traffic jams all over Metro Manila will choke whatever economic growth Roxas is claiming, since it affects the productivity of employees and workers and would be bad for the economy, the vice chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development said.

If the government does not solve Metro Manila’s traffic congestion, the economy could face productivity losses skyrocketing to P6 billion a day by 2030 from the current P2.4 billion, according to a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study.

Gatchalian said a possible solution to Metro Manila’s traffic problem is the regulation of new car sales to people with parking spaces at homes or in offices to decongest secondary roads to be used to ease traffic.

He has filed House Bill 5098, the proposed Proof of Parking Space Act seeking to require buyers of brand new cars, whether individuals or firms, to execute an affidavit indicating the availability of an existing parking space for the vehicle to be bought. 

“The road congestion in Metro Manila is worsened by the idle vehicles parked on the sides of streets, which hamper the flow of motor vehicles and foot traffic,” he said. “This can be solved if car owners have their own parking spaces.”  – With Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero