Night shift economy

Many people have dismissed the City of Manila as an old decaying city dying a slow agonizing death — buried in debt, choking from traffic and air pollution, humiliatingly poor and its sidewalks serving as home to the homeless. Even its once famous tourist spots are deteriorated and unattractive, where the famous sunset of Manila Bay is not worth the risk of being mugged or harassed by vagrants and mendicants.

Some might even say that the Old City is no more than a calloused bleeding toe at the extremity of the mega metropolis we call Metro Manila. Unlike San Juan or Quezon City, or even Pasig City, Manila is nowhere near the center or the epicenter of urban living. But just like any part of the body (human or otherwise), when one part hurts, the pain will travel and will be experienced by the entire body. That is exactly what we have been experiencing as the City of Manila tries yet again to heal itself from a situation that benefits the nation but curses the city.

Most newspaper readers are probably well aware of how city officials of Manila headed by Mayor Joseph Estrada are trying different ways to decongest their city from traffic. The idea is if there is movement there will be commerce, there will be activity, and this will be good for business as well as for communities. In order to do this, the gatekeepers of Manila need to regulate both people and vehicles coming in and out of the city based on the original and actual capacities of its existing roadways. That of course runs directly in conflict with “progress” — “logistics” and plain old business interest.

It would be easy to accuse people at City Hall of being desperate or despotic, but no one seems to have considered how business has grown for bus companies, transporters and the different ports of “Manila” as well as the shipping companies and boat owners, while the City of Manila has to live with the consequences. Yes, the city collects taxes in some form or another, but they can never charge enough for what the real costs is to the city in terms of congestion, damages and manpower not to mention the loss of income that could be earned if Manila were more accessible and easier to navigate.

So the City of Manila now chooses to bite the bullet and regulate trucks and transport companies to “night shift” status. Of course everyone is complaining because nobody likes change. They don’t even want to think about it. But it is about time that we all consider changing how we live and how we do business, most especially the National Government and all our legislators. Everybody wants a booming economy but no one ever prepared for it! Has anybody done the math and engineering comparison between how business, volumes and the economy have grown relative to how roads or infrastructure has expanded?

Let’s take a starting date and see how much the volume of container vans have multiplied in terms of deliveries both in and out of the piers of Manila over a 20-year period. If we put those container vans side by side and compare that to how much the roads have been widened or expanded over the same 20-year period, we would easily know if we have been keeping up with the development of roads versus logistics volume. I don’t think we have and in fact I suspect that road area has been reduced just from the impact of the LRT-MRT as well as the construction of shopping malls etc.

Sadly, even after decades of being told that government offices have to move out, that colleges and universities have to move out, large government hospitals have to move out and that the piers and port of Manila have to be decongested, NO ONE wants to move out. Business is cheap and therefore good in Manila except for the City of Manila and its residents.

So now the “calloused toe,” meaning the City of Manila, has started little by little to share their pain with the rest of us. First by pointing out that they are not Metro Manila’s common bus terminal. They banned buses that had no terminals from coming into the city, thereby creating headaches for Quezon City and Pasay. That’s when the National government was “forced” to fast track the long needed unified bus terminal. Now Manila plans to limit transport trucks between 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. That ladies and gentlemen will formally usher the “night shift economy” that people have been suggesting for the longest time, but something officials in the national government could never get off the ground. We need to build up a “night shift economy” protected by law enforcement, supported by legislators and logistics companies and imposed on private corporations who don’t want the added work of building their own “night shift force.” If call centers can operate 24/7, if McDonald’s and coffee shops have 24-hour chains, why can’t factories and malls take deliveries between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.?  Yes, why not?

Why should ships and containers be concentrated in the Port of Manila if we have so much more area available in Cavite and Batangas? Well because there was never really any reason or motivation serious enough to cause it. But now there is; the survival of the City of Manila depends on it. Perhaps Mayor Estrada might also want to consider making the City of Manila as one of the “finest” cities just like Singapore that has a reputation for fining people for every violation from jaywalking to littering etc. Then they could adopt the automated Singapore system of charging different road users tax and last but not the least, increase the business and real estate tax just like what Quezon City and Makati do. Yes it will be unpopular but it will be profitable for the City of Manila and not outsiders who take away all the profits everyday!

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