Effective today, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is supposed to start enforcing the ban against any road construction works all over Metro Manila. The suspension of road works will remain during this Christmas season due to the projected traffic jams. Road repairs, including re-blocking, pipe laying projects, and excavation works in Metro Manila will be suspended from Nov. 14 until Jan. 6 next year.
This is how long we Filipinos celebrate the Christmas season.
There is supposed to be a temporary truck ban also over the entire stretch of Roxas Boulevard. The MMDA announced the truck ban to take effect on the first day of this month. Trucks with gross capacity weight of more than 4,500 kilograms are prohibited temporarily “to avoid deterioration” of traffic flow along Roxas Boulevard, a major road artery in Metro Manila. Both north- and south-bound lanes of Roxas Boulevard are currently undergoing road reconstruction by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
However, sixteen-wheeler container vehicles and other trucks continue to ply Roxas Boulevard with obvious impunity at any given hours of the day. Trucks are banned likewise from entering major roads in Navotas City starting today.
MMDA Chairman Romando Artes disclosed last week he had a sit-down meeting with mall owners who reportedly all agreed to adjust anew to off-rush hours of store opening and closing time implemented every Christmas season in Metro Manila. Exempted from the regulation are deliveries of perishable goods and groceries as well as restaurants serving breakfast. As agreed, all store opening is set at 11 o’clock in the morning until 11 o’clock in the evening as the end, or closing of business hours. Mall-wide sales are also prohibited during weekdays.
These sprawling malls and many other crowd-drawing establishments are the magnets of traffic jams around Metro Manila. Quite a number of these super-sized malls dotted the entire stretch of traffic-prone EDSA highway. As monitored by the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center, traffic volume along EDSA has gone back to hitting as many as 400,000 vehicles per day. This is almost equivalent to the daily vehicle volume in EDSA before all public transports were restricted following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic here in the Philippines. This is projected to increase by as much as 20 percent in vehicle volume during the holiday season, or about 40,000 additional vehicles passing through EDSA.
According to Artes, the MMDA would meet with officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and relay the request of mall operators to extend the operations of the EDSA bus carousel and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 until midnight for transport needs of many mall-goers.
The traffic jams and the brisk sales at malls are just manifestations that our country’s economy has really picked up from the doldrums caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the very clear signs of robust consumption spending. Thus, our country’s consumption-driven economic growth continued to pick up pace despite the series of oil price hikes and ensuing fare hikes in public utility jeepneys and its consequent push to the prices of foodstuffs and other basic goods.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) posted a growth of 7.6 percent for the third quarter this year. Given this faster quarterly GDP growth, it would seem nothing can dampen what we now popularly call as “binge” spending and “revenge” travelling. The massive vaccination and booster shots programs across the country have erased the fears of people from the deadly COVID-19 infection to get out of their comfort zones.
In fact, no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) is now on the way of totally lifting the country out of the “public health emergency” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of public calamity was declared by PBBM’s immediate predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte. The nationwide lockdown following the outbreak here of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 nearly brought the country’s economy literally down to its knees.
Any time soon, PBBM is expected to officially declare the Philippines is out of this COVID-19 pandemic state. So far, PBBM issued the Executive Order that now makes it voluntary to wear face masks both indoor and outdoor public places, except like inside hospitals and in public transports.
While he was in Cambodia attending his first ever ASEAN Leaders’ Summit held there last week, PBBM was visibly elated in spreading the “good news” about the country’s economic performance. The Chief Executive, who is concurrently the Agriculture Secretary, noted with obvious pride that the country’s agriculture sector contributed significant push to the latest GDP growth. He likewise cited the decline in unemployment rate for the same period, albeit slight decrease only.
So it was with so much optimism that we learned that PBBM has instructed his Cabinet socio-economic cluster to find ways how the fruits of the growing economy could be brought all the way down to all Juan and Juana dela Cruz across the Philippines. Albay Rep. Joey Salceda revealed last week about the request of PBBM for the Department of Energy (DOE) officials to confer with them in the 19th Congress on possible economic relief measures.
Regarded as the resident economist of Congress, Salceda cited one area being studied by the DOE is the possible waiver of the 12% value added tax (VAT). Specifically being studied is removing the VAT on road tolls – which is actually nothing but a tax on tax – and on systems losses of power companies passed on to electricity consumers.
As the chairman of the House ways and means committee, Salceda has frowned upon proposed bills that would result to more taxes being imposed by the government to offset revenue losses. “Fortunately, we have a Bong-boom economy,” Salceda gleefully coined.
Hopefully, this “Bong-boom” economics could really bring about the desired goal of better living conditions in the Philippines.