Backfire!

Sometimes, what we think is a good idea can backfire or bite us in the butt. Our Barangay officials here in Barrio Kapitolyo may not have realized it but one of their bright ideas has backfired and resulted in a lot of wasted money and man-hours. A year or so ago they came up with a bright idea: to paint “yellow – zebra stripes” on every street corner to signify that the painted areas are “No Parking.” If this worked, drivers would not have to deal with the many vehicles that obstruct corner turns and block right of way.

The bright idea actually became a major fail, a waste of a lot of money spent on labor and materials, and exposed the fact that the barangay and its officials did not have the political will and the legal means to back up their “No Parking” declaration. The only good things that came out of the failed project was the discovery that many people are illiterate about what the color yellow/stripes means or symbolizes. When the boxes with stripes were put down, drivers, even those from TV5 actually parked properly inside the box.

Second lesson from the failed project is that those who lay down rules must have the means and the will to enforce them. Equally important in a society that generally don’t read or respect signs or symbols, is the lesson that if you want to say something spell it out!

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Another bright idea gone dangerously wrong is that of officials in “The Tiger City” of Mandaluyong. Pedestrians and motorists have long complained about being caged in Tiger City because of the expensive and decorative metal railings that Mandaluyong officials put up along Shaw Boulevard beginning from San Miguel avenue in front of Lourdes School all the way to the corner of EDSA service road.

This bright idea was to discourage jaywalkers in front of the church, the school and the mall. Unfortunately such an idea was meant for a few individuals but did not to take into account that jeepneys and their passengers use the area as the unofficial and illegal jeepney stop where hundreds of passengers get off. So the fence that was meant to stop jaywalkers ended up blocking hundreds of people from getting off the streets and on to the sidewalk. As a result, it takes twice the amount of time for cars to get through because people are fenced in with the cars.

In front of Lourdes school and the church, the sidewalk is only one and a half person wide with a few posts blocking the way and the decorative fence preventing people from getting out of each other’s way. As a result it takes longer to get through so people opt to walk on the street instead of the sidewalk. Either Mandaluyong officials sit down with the Franciscans to buy another meter and a half for public convenience or they remove the cage that endangers people.

While the bosses of Tiger City are at it, they might want to study the possibility of roping off a dedicated lane for vehicles going to Pasig at the EDSA/Shaw flyover. Many motorists who regularly go up the flyover from the Mandaluyong side towards Pasig have observed that vehicles going straight are always blocked or delayed by vehicles going under the flyover to “Crossing.” A rope, a barrier would be the simplest solution to the unnecessary traffic.

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While reading bits and pieces of the apology of CebuPac president and CEO Lance Gokongwei, I was reminded of a time when 12 business journalists were stranded at NAIA 3 for about eight hours due to a CebuPac delay, effectively losing a whole day’s work on the Caticlan airport. I remember advising Gokongwei’s brother-in-law to tell Lance that he should pop up at the airport and at least have coffee and talk to the journalists who would appreciate the gesture as well as give them something positive to write about.

Sadly the problem was forwarded to the Corporate Communications group of CebuPac who in turn sent the most junior of their members to offer to buy sandwiches and coffee for the journalists. I recall this story because it serves as a lesson to all of us. Small things left unattended or in this case not given importance, will ultimately grow bigger. Because you pass it on, it also sends the message that it is not that important. A couple of years later, P52 million in fines later, thousands of angry passengers later, Lance Gokongwei finds himself in the uncomfortable situation of having to apologize for failing their customers. There is after all a lot of truth to the phrase: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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For the remainder of the P-Noy administration, someone has seriously suggested that P-Noy and his cabinet secretaries should avoid going to Tacloban because it is clearly a High Jinx location for them. Secretary Mar Roxas and Secretary Voltaire Gazmin nearly met their creator there and from what I heard Secretary Gazmin would have suffered a diabetic shock during Typhoon Yolanda if the local officials did not manage to find the necessary meds for him.

Operationally, Tacloban left a bad taste in the mouth for Secretary Rogelio Singson and Secretary Dinky Soliman who were slammed and harassed by very unhappy victims of Typhoon Yolanda who demanded better solutions from the national government. Last week, Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa and Secretary Sonny Coloma nearly had a cabinet meeting with the Late and Great Jesse Robredo, after their chartered or borrowed jet plane got slammed by wind shear caused by Typhoon Amang. High Jinx indeed.

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