Infernal

It was Friday. It was payday. It was a rainy day. Consequently, the roads were clogged last week and Metro Manila’s working population was about ready to rebel.

Bad enough that no new road space in the metropolitan area was added the last few years. Now the agencies whose regulations affect traffic flow are openly fighting each other.

Last month, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) issued Memorandum Circular No. 10 Series of 2014 as part of its initiative to “rationalize” the routes of provincial public utility bus service. The Board, headed by Winston Ginez, thinks that by “rationalizing” the routes of provincial buses, commuters will be assured sufficient supply of transport to service their needs.

It is also intended to protect legal bus operators with valid franchises from “colorum” transport using the same routes.

The “rationalization” included use of metro roads by provincial buses en route to their terminals. Some of these routes involved crossing traffic-sensitive Edsa. This seems to be the point of controversy between the LTFRB and the MMDA.

Things might have been easier if the common terminals in the north, east and south of the metro were built and ready for operation. It is, however, taking government forever to build these promised facilities.

Without these terminals, what are the provincial buses to do? They will have to access their old in-city terminals somehow. Since they cannot fly, they will have to use the existing roads.

In addition, the DOTC and the LTFRB issued a Joint Administrative Order setting deadlines for trucks-for-hire to acquire proper documentation and imposing stiff fines for “colorum” operators. The MMDA, meanwhile, continues to enforce its separate set of fines and penalties.

The situation creates confusion among transport companies, compounding the chaos produced by the truck ban imposed by the City of Manila. Provincial buses plying the new “rationalized” routes are accosted and fined by MMDA enforcers. Meanwhile, “colorum” transport units continue to proliferate.

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, for his part, rails against the new policies of the LTFRB. He says these policies were adopted without consulting his agency.

One particular source of aggravation for Tolentino is LTFRB’s Resolution No. 5 which effectively lifted the ban on for-hire trucks in the metro. He blames this policy for producing the monstrous traffic jams we have been seeing lately. On Katipunan Avenue for instance, he claims the number of vehicles monitored nearly doubled between June 19, 2014 and June 25, 2014.

Tolentino complains the suspension of apprehension of out-of-line public utility vehicles (to make way for rationalization, says the LTFRB) added to the traffic jams. The “rationalization” of routes will be completed October 17.

The MMDA basically wants provincial buses to stay out of the city, using interim terminals. The establishment of a “multi-modal transport and logistic system” envisioned by President Aquino’s Executive Order no. 67, issued over two years ago, remains largely on the drawing board.

Tolentino is particularly riled by a provision in the LTFRB circular that reads: “All other issuances or parts thereof inconsistent herewith are hereby modified, amended or superseded accordingly.” The MMDA chairman worries that earlier policies agreed upon by the various agencies might have been voided.

Perhaps the contending agencies, like nations when crises happen, could hold a summit and sort things out — for the sake of our suffering commuters.

Admissions

BCDA president Arnel Casanova, last seen loyally performing the role of “starter” for applause during the last SONA, recently published a full-page “Open Letter” addressed to Baguio mayor Mauricio Domogan.

This is an interesting document. In it, Casanova seems backtracking on many positions he took vis-à-vis the Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDEVCO). The last four years, the BCDA president appeared particularly obsessed with making life difficult for the investors in this key tourist facility — including filing estafa charges against the chair of CJHDEVCO.

In his Open Letter to Domogan, Casanova admits that CJHDEVCO remitted to the City of Baguio P256 million as its share from rental payments for the Camp John Hay facility. Since, by the terms of the original agreement, the city is entitled to 25% of total rental payments, Casanova in effect recognized that the investor must have paid more than P1.024 billion in rental payments. The BCDA heretofore has not recognized such payments, leading to the filing of estafa charges.

In the same document, Casanova also acknowledged his agency is in arbitration proceedings with CJHDEVCO at the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. (PDRCI). He neglects to mention that the BCDA earlier refused to participate in arbitration until the agency was ordered by the Baguio regional trial court to do so.

Casanova, perhaps grudgingly, recognized that Camp John Hay tourist arrivals were up 16% for 2013, business activity up by 30% and jobs increased by 56%. An impressive 92% of this jobs were for locals. What he did not say, however, that these impressive numbers happened despite the BCDA refusing to cooperate with the investors in the facility and consistently failing to deliver its part of the bargain (such as providing a one-stop shop for investors).

Both Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping and Mayor Domogan did not seem impressed by Casanova’s letter. They know better about how the BCDA has been trying to stymie full development of the John Hay facility.

As a case in point, the BCDA lost a case it filed preventing the city government from collecting business taxes in the facility. The BCDA elevated the case to the Supreme Court.

In its skewed presentation of the facts, Casanova’s letter was much like the SONA.