Rabbits and turtles will be arrested

Yes, rabbits as well as turtles on the fast lane will be arrested!

If you are one of those over entitled owners of super cars who use the NLEX, SLEX and Skyway as your private speedway, or if you are one of those ignorant and belligerent drivers who stay on the fast lane blocking drivers who need to overtake, there is now public pressure and agreement that you must be singled out and arrested!

That was the general consensus among representatives of the different tollways represented during the 5th Usapan AAP program yesterday. The matter was jointly raised by officers of the Automobile Association of the Philippines in line with their road safety campaign as well as concerns raised by several writers from the motoring media.

Aside from committing to go after reckless drivers, it was also revealed that the toll operators along with the Toll Regulatory Board will soon be coming out with a more affordable “E-pass” which will be a “sticker type.” Unlike current models utilized by the NLEX and SLEX operators which are more expensive, the sticker type has a simpler design but with the “drawback” of being non-transferable and dedicated to a specific vehicle. This of course remains to be seen considering how imaginative or resourceful Filipino drivers can be.

The TRB has also agreed to look into the possibility of convincing the operators to sell the “E-pass” on installment so that motorists won’t have to put out P1, 700 in one go which many people find too expensive.

The third good news, which is of particular interest and benefit to residents and motorist of Lipa City, Batangas is that the Toll Regulatory Board has reportedly advised the Star Tollway management to address the various petitions to open a new exit/entry point for Balete and Sto. Toribio bridge. While there is still much to be done in terms of legal work, engineering design and actual construction, this bit of news from the TRB and Star Toll now moves the Balete exit from a possibility to a probability.

The TRB and Star Toll also confirmed that the road expansion or adding of additional lanes from Lipa City to Batangas City has been accelerated. Instead of following the “rule” where expansion takes place only when sufficient volume of traffic is established, The TRB and the Star Toll Management have agreed that the additional lanes should be put in place and construction is actually already ongoing. If we heard correctly, the additional lanes should be ready for use in 16 months.

On a side note, the participants also inquired about the postponed plan to rehabilitate EDSA. Former DPWH Usec Manny Bonoan who is now the president of the Skyway O&M Corp shared how there have been many such proposals and the fact that the ADB or World Bank had at one time offered a grant as part of the rehabilitation in order to improve the air quality along the EDSA corridor. But due to bureaucratic delays and wrangling the particular proposal never got off and the grant was withdrawn.

The more serious revelation about the status of EDSA is that re-blocking is the wrong solution and any further delay in the rehabilitation of EDSA will result in the current cracks increasing exponentially to the point that repair will no longer be an option. By then we will have to completely demolish EDSA and build a new one. As for the potential traffic created by the rehabilitation, everyone was in agreement that everybody including the privileged residents of exclusive villages MUST make sacrifices and do their part by opening some roads as pass through corridors for a limited period. The participants were also in agreement that the situation makes the immediate construction of the NLEX-SLEX Interconnector projects urgent in order to provide a replacement corridor for traffic.

If there is any resistance to the suggestion, it might help if P-Noy brought BIR Commissioner Kim Henares to the bargaining table just to exemplify political will!

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I suppose hospitals are just as much part of our lives as death and taxes will be. After a couple of articles about private and government hospitals, I have slowly been receiving inputs and feedback on the matter. For starters I would like to state that the hospital in QC area referred to in the article “Your Ignorance is Costing You” IS NOT St. Luke’s Medical Center. In fact their corporate communications manager Ms. Tronqued contacted me to inform me that their rabies serum was somewhere in the P7,500 range only.

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I also received feedback from other people particularly from the Batangas area and Lipa City where people are complaining about the state and quality of service in emergency rooms. In one hospital, the owners have a system that no supplies can be released until they are logged and cleared on their computer. Imagine lying in the ER bleeding or in need of sutures, gauzes and anesthetic but not getting any because the computer or the internet server is down?

In another case, a patient was ready for discharge but the attending MD kept “postponing” his consultation resulting in the patient being charged an extra night. The next day, the patient’s family whisked their mother home, returned and filed a formal complaint. This practice is probably one of the most common scams of small private hospitals to make more money. Another common complaint against hospitals and doctors in Tanauan, Lipa and Batangas City I regularly receive, is the discrepancy or lack of a system or price structure for professional fees. The general sentiment is it is mostly guess work and if you get a private room you are rich and can afford it. I know people who get a private room because they want to get well, get some rest and not listen to a dying patient in the next bed or acquire another set of diseases!

I don’t know if Secretary Ona and the PMA have people who read columns and editorials, but instead of privatization or Repair, Operate PPP schemes, they might help more people, inspecting hospitals and bringing sanity to the unregulated monetization of health care!

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E-mail: utalk2 [email protected]