P-Noy’s traffic plan

At a speech at the Rizal Technological University, President Aquino asked for patience and understanding of the citizenry on the traffic situation, after five years of inaction.

Aquino said that there is a need for more bridges and widening of roads. He certainly won’t be able to build new bridges and wider roads for the remaining eight months of his administration. These projects would require years of planning and development to accomplish.

The President also said that the administration is thinking of instituting once again the odd-even scheme of traffic, a radical idea of cutting the volume of vehicles on the streets of Metro Manila by half. This would definitely favor only the rich who can simply buy more cars to ride them alternately on odd or even days. Therefore, not a solution. Further, there is not enough mass transit to accommodate the additional passengers caused by the odd-even scheme.

Part of the cause of the traffic mess is that more than 22,400 new vehicles are sold every month and 100,000 motorcycles a month, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 2014 records.

The Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) should stop issuing any new franchises for taxis, buses, UV Express cars and now Uber and Grab a Taxi cars. There is certainly no room for additional vehicles on the streets.

Cars on EDSA should be limited every day to certain hours. A consistent enforcement of road discipline would go a long way toward easing traffic woes.

We have our light rail system, which aims to help reduce the traffic along EDSA, and possibly along the most congested areas in the Metropolis, but it has not been well prioritized by the Aquino administration. Its inefficiency has caused daily suffering of hundreds of thousands of commuters. Many have had no choice but to use their cars just not to line up for hours just to catch a train, contributing to the dreadful traffic in the Metropolis. The Aquino administration should give the highest priority to the operations of the train system, such as adding additional fleet of trains and upgrade the electrical and electronic systems supporting it, rather than using its maintenance funds for corruption purposes.

The traffic situation in Metro Manila has turned from bad to worse that even Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle called the government’s attention to address the daily traffic problem.

The Singapore system, which limits the entry of cars to traffic heavy areas, should be studied.

Unjust tax

Jujeath Nagoao, a 27-year-old Filipina martial arts fighter, won the international light flyweight title of the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) in Macau last June.

To her surprise, when she claimed her championship belt from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), who is under fire recently for their policy of checking contents of Balikbayan boxes for taxable items, she was told to pay almost P6,000 tax before she can take the belt out.

When asked about the case, BOC commissioner Alberto Lina  justified the tax and said Nagoao had to get an exemption from the  Department of Finance.

This is unfair and unjust. This is a Filipino who had brought pride to this country, just like Manny Pacquiao. Tax is a very little thing to give as an appreciation to your hero. Something is wrong here, Commissioner Lina.

Something wrong

Once again, after faulty helicopters, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) procured 44,186 M4 rifles from Remington Outdoor, Inc. which turned out to be defective. The faulty rifles had not passed the final inspection of the Technical Inspection and Acceptance Committee (TIAC).

Every year a procurement contract of the AFP or the Philippine National Police (PNP) has turned out to be irregular and defective.

It is embarrassing that President Aquino personally distributed the said rifles to the soldiers as testament to proper use of government funds, and that he could provide them better weapons. The AFP put President Aquino in a bad light.

AFP and PNP procurement is always accompanied by corruption, and millions are involved.

Low GDP growth

From a target 7 to 8 percent, the second quarter Growth Domestic Product (GDP) came in at only 5.6 percent, down from 6.7 percent in the same quarter last year.

Once again, one of the causes of the slow growth is the government’s poor spending. There is enough money available but it is held back to be spent in the election period next year.

Also dropping the GDP down is the low growth of agriculture at only 0.5 percent. Agriculture will continue to contract because of the  incoming El Niño.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan has reduced the projected GDP growth for 2015 to only 6-6.5 percent.

Tidbits

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Business Expectations Survey (BES) shows only 41 percent are optimistic about the third quarter, down from 49 percent last quarter.

Journalist Cosme Maestrado was shot dead in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental. He was the second Mindanao journalist murdered this month.

Rep.Terry Ridon said that 59 state universities and colleges (SUCs) budgets have been reduced.

Senator Ralph Recto proposed to increase the tax exemption of balikbayan boxes to $2,000 from the present $500.

Rep. Mark Mendoza, Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) secretary general, endorsed the Grace Poe-Chiz Escudero tandem.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno told a press conference that she has an unqualified agreement with the dissenting opinion of Justice Marvic Leonen in the Enrile bail case.