Going through the motions

Education is supposed to be a good thing, but only when you learn something, and get to apply it in a meaningful, beneficial, and practical way. Failure to do so will render the entire learning process a total waste of time, effort and resources. This is probably the sad and sorry fate that awaits six Cebu traffic and development officials from Cebu who are in Japan to study that country's traffic management systems and urban planning methods.

Some of these officials are my friends and I appreciate their desire to learn from what Japan can offer in the subject areas of interest to them. And I have no doubt that these officials, intelligent as they are, can truly learn a thing or two from that highly advanced country. But I am sorry that my misgivings cannot allow even the slightest optimism to couch whatever outcome they may bring home.

And my reason for pessimism is simply this: The conditions and circumstances that make traffic systems and urban development work so well in Japan just do not exist in the Philippines. Learning lessons in Japan is one thing, putting them to good use in the Philippines is another. Japan and the Japanese are as different from the Philippines and Filipinos as are Fuji apples and "butong pakwan."

For one thing, Japan is a land of ultra-modern cities. It is so technologically advanced it is a crying shame for the Philippines to even try comparing itself to that country if set back even 20 years ago. And the Japanese, they are so disciplined and sticklers for regulation they would probably go mad if let loose in any Philippine city for too long.

Cebu, where the six officials are from, does not have, for example, the slightest excuse for a mass transport system. And given the political wrangling just discussing the thought of having one has generated, it will be a miracle if it can have one in the span of time that the six officials might retain in memory what they might have learned in Japan.

And what kind of urban planning might be implemented in a country like the Philippines where every policy is always suited to the prevailing political interest of the day. Take, for instance, the problem of sidewalk vending, one of the leading causes of traffic congestion in any major Philippine city. This problem has been with Filipinos for as long as anyone can remember.

So why hasn't the problem of sidewalk vending been effectively addressed after all these years? The reason, obviously, is that sidewalk vendors represent millions upon millions of voters who just cannot be swept under the rug without jeopardizing some politician's lucrative career forever. So, as a compromise, each and every policy seeking to deal with the problem of sidewalk vending has always been to make room to skirt around the problem.

It is not that Filipinos are particularly dense and cannot come up with their own brilliant traffic and urban development ideas. They can and they have. But always, always, they have had to give way to some cause or other that could have been pursued and promoted some other way. But blocking big ticket projects is what gets into the news. And getting into the news is what is politically expedient. So there. We wallow while Japan surges. And then we go there in all pretense.

‘The conditions and circumstances that make traffic systems and urban development work so well in Japan just do not exist in the Philippines.’