Of bad traffic and gov’t inefficiency!

Happy Easter to our faithful readers. We hope that you truly had a blessed Holy Week. As we’ve pointed out last week, Holy Week doesn’t end with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but with his resurrection on Easter Sunday and we earnestly hope that many of you have changed for the better.

Speaking of change, we’d like to know, when would things start changing for the better for this country? Are we Filipinos so indifferent or turned so callous that we have embraced or accepted the status quo? Last Sunday when I opened my Facebook, I saw a photo of the humongous traffic jam of vehicles returning back to Manila after the Holy Week observation.

That was only one part of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and I’m sure it was just as bad as the other places, which gives you an idea that if we don’t fix our problems, things will just get worse. What’s happening in Metro Manila is something that we in Cebu hope not to follow. But for as long as we continue with the same highly-centralized bureaucracy especially under the Aquino regime…I’m afraid that we’re headed for the inevitable and Metro Cebu would end up like Metro Manila, so choked and congested!

Take it from the World Economic Forum (WEF) Competitiveness Ranking of countries that clearly stated, “Corruption, inefficient government bureaucracy and inadequate supply of infrastructure remain the top three problematic factors.” This is why Cebuanos are sore at President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III because for the last three years, we never had any major infrastructure projects that he gave to Cebu. P-Noy is the first President to win the elections in Cebu who gave nothing to us in return for his victory.

Last April 15, the group called Mega Cebu, this is the short name of the group called Metro Cebu Development & Coordinating Board (MCDCB), had an anniversary gathering where one of its highlights was the powerpoint presentation of Engr. Fortunato Sanchez. That presentation was attended by Mayor Michael Rama and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) president Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz and many supporters of the Mega Cebu project.

One issue that struck many in the audience was about the serious lack of infrastructure in Cebu… and I reckon this includes most of the Philippines except Metro Manila. Because of this lack of infrastructure, the World Investment Report for the Year 2013 revealed, “The Philippines ranked 116th out of 141 countries in terms of their ability to attract Direct Foreign Investments (FDI). If at all, the bright light for the country is investments in the Business Process  Outsourcing (BPO) industry and not much else.

Engr. Sanchez also got a quote from Central Bank Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo who said, “The poor infrastructure in the Philippines is to be blamed…it is very difficult to compete with countries in the region particularly China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam because they are so much ahead of us in terms of infrastructure.” A Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study also revealed that the Philippines loses as much as P2.4 billion per day on lost productivity and potential income due to bad traffic jams. This was published in another paper last July 6, 2013.

In short, President Aquino should have spent the first three years of his term giving out infrastructure projects throughout the Philippines. But as it is, the majority of his infrastructure development is being spent in Metro Manila…when it is already very congested. The solution should have been to give our infrastructure development to other growth areas in the country like Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Iloilo, Dipolog or Cebu. But then alas, even P-Noy can’t turn back the hands of time.

You want to talk about inefficient government bureaucracy? A close friend of mine told me over the weekend that the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) community in Cebu tapped all BLD communities to help the victims of super typhoon Yolanda, which struck last Nov. 8. One such community that responded to their call was the BLD in Newark, New Jersey that went out of its way to secure donations of food and clothing earmarked for Northern Cebu and Ormoc City. It took months to get all these donations, plus another couple of months to ship this container to Cebu.

Last March 13 a 40 ft. container arrived consigned to Caritas Pilipinas with the BLD Cebu as its beneficiary. The container was opened by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the foodstuff were released, but the clothing was confiscated, citing a law that prohibits the bringing in of used clothing to the country. I gathered that there are ten or more container vans still with the BOC because of the same circumstances. While we do not dispute the law against selling used clothing, the P-Noy regime should have put one agency in charge of donations such as these. I’m scared that when another Yolanda would hit us the international community won’t be as generous as they have been in the past because it’s not worth sending help to the Philippines.

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