P-noy should scold DOTC too

“I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m dismayed because even today, it’s appearing as if the improvements in the National Irrigation Administration are dismal. We’re already halfway through my term, and it’s a problem that up until now, you still don’t know what you want to do,” President Aquino added.

Hmmm… so it is true that P-Noy is really getting impatient with the non delivery of vital infrastructure projects. That’s what sources at the Palace have been telling me. In their words, P-Noy is getting antsy. Or is it only because NIA failed to carry out an irrigation project in his home province of Tarlac?

It certainly is about time. What P-Noy told the NIA guys as quoted above can be said as well for a major department that has not delivered any major infrastructure and not likely to. Its Secretary already said they will be happy to just award the projects before P-Noy leaves office.

But will P-Noy have the guts to scold DOTC the way he scolded the NIA guys? I have my doubts. Despite the appointment of a new DOTC Secretary, folks inside tell me that the real boss is still good ol’ Mar Roxas. Jun Abaya is merely acting as a Senior Undersecretary. Key meetings with ODA agencies still include Mar.

Mar left all his key people as undersecretaries at DOTC. With Mar still the spiritual DOTC head, P-Noy will consciously mind his p’s and q’s. P-Noy feels a strong debt of gratitude to Mar for giving way and landing the presidency in his lap. But P-Noy owes Mar nothing. P-Noy owes everything to the people who elected him.

The presidency was not Mar’s to give to P-Noy in the first place. Mar knew when he “gave up” the presidency that it was more than an uphill climb. It would have been Manny Villar or Erap who would have won if Mar continued with his quest. Mar’s credibility deficit with the masa is enough to make his election to higher office impossible.

So, go ahead P-Noy and scold that bloody department that has given up on delivering any major transport infrastructure within your term. I was hoping that they could deliver the very short four kilometer Masinag extension of LRT 2 but it doesn’t look that way. The lawyers running the show don’t have a clue how to run an infrastructure department like DOTC.

I suggest P-Noy schedules a man-to-man talk with Sec Jun Abaya. Go down the list of DOTC projects the way I did with him early this year. Check the dates in their timeline and ask that they be honest about the length of time it takes for DOTC to process projects. Of course, DOTC people will deny they failed to meet targets and that would be true only in so far as they have set movable or no targets at all.

That is the unfortunate thing with DOTC. Money is no longer a problem but the capacity of the agency to process the projects is the biggest hurdle that seems insurmountable with each passing day. A Palace friend tried to defend them by saying the postponement of bidding dates is mostly at the request of private sector bidders.

That may be true but the reason the private bidders are asking for more time is because the bid documents from DOTC require more clarifications on the technical aspects. Somehow, the lawyers are not capable of making clear specs and responding quickly to requests for clarifications. The most technically capable official of DOTC, Jose Aliling of NorthRail gave up two years ago.

I know I sound like a broken record about the failure of DOTC to get anything done. But it is now a crisis, in case P-Noy has not noticed. It is not just the major infra projects that are stalled. The computerized system to track driver’s licenses and car registrations is also in limbo… so is the bidding for car plates.

How ridiculous is it to require new car owners to use pentel pen and cartolina to make their own car plates? If this is not Exhibit “A” of gross bureaucratic incompetence, I don’t know what is. The worse part is that everyone sees evidence of this incompetence everyday and that eventually reflects on P-Noy. If I were P-Noy, that should make me really, really mad.

Sometimes there are no-brainer solutions for really big problems but this administration decides to do it the hard way. As a result, nothing gets done.

The MRT 3 problem is good case, as I have repeatedly pointed out. We all know how MRT 3 is tied up in complicated legal troubles. But Manny Pangilinan got into a deal with the original proponents and offered to take on the responsibility of rehabilitating the system and the capex required off the hands of government.

I am writing about this again now because both Sec Jun Abaya and MRT Gen Mgr Al Vitangcol have been talking about a fare increase lately. Sure, I agree the system is due for a fare increase to lower the subsidy of government. But Vitangcol is saying the system needs a P60 fare to wipe out the subsidy even if the fare they will implement is a lot less.

If that is the case, the MVP solution is a better option for commuters. From what I recall, if government accepted MVP’s proposal in 2010, fares would have been in the P28 to P30 (average fare), half of what Vitangcol says the system needs. There will be savings in the subsidy and MVP’s group will instead pay a concession fee to the government.

The never ending problem on how to go about financing and executing the capacity expansion and improvements in the MRT 3 shall be for the account of MPIC. If DOTC acted in 2010, we should be getting our new trains by now. As it is, we haven’t even started.

Now, any hopes of seeing improvements in MRT 3 just went up in smoke. There are reports accusing a sister of P-Noy, her husband and a former DOTC secretary close to them in an alleged extortion attempt on a Czech train manufacturer.

I do not believe P-Noy’s sister could do such a thing but the scandal will nevertheless delay any move of government to buy any trains for MRT 3. The cloud of suspicion will be there, making it difficult to make any award. People may even think that government didn’t take the no-brainer proposal of MVP because the bureaucrats wanted to make money on the train purchases.

The NAIA 1 makeover is another no-brainer case. When the Layug/Cobonpue group proposed to do a quick remake of the terminal, Mar Roxas stopped them. Mar probably thought that his turf was being invaded. The group offered their design services pro bono at the instance of Bill Luz of the National Competitiveness Council.

To save bureaucratic face, Mar announced that they will work first on the structural retrofitting of the terminal building. Except that two years after, nothing much has been done. Now, Malacanang has announced the Layug/Cobonpue group will work with the Locsin architectural firm to do what they wanted to do two years ago.

Letting Cobonpue do the NAIA makeover in 2011 was a very obvious no-brainer. Mar could have his structural retrofit done inside the old building while the facelift is being done outside… that dog-eat-dog of a parking lot and “welcome” area long needed to be civilized and made friendlier to local and foreign airline passengers. We could have had something decent by now.

I realize P-Noy cannot be everywhere. But the “technical deficit” that is inherent with his appointed officials at DOTC is at the root of the problem. I don’t know how much more can be done between now and June 30, 2016.

At the rate P-Noy is turning a blind eye on DOTC incompetence, out of deference to Mar Roxas, I will not be surprised if he goes there and gives them a bonus instead of a scolding.

I don’t know how P-Noy feels but this failure to deliver is something he should get very mad about. I know most Filipino citizens are mad already and they are P-Noy’s bosses.

Safe sex

Romana Borromeo sent this one. Condoms don’t guarantee safe sex anymore … A friend of mine was wearing one when he was shot by the woman’s husband.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco