’Teka-teka’ taking its toll

The horrendous traffic that motorists and commuters experienced last Friday was one of the worst, with everything on a standstill for almost half the day with the roads resembling giant parking lots, the congestion aggravated by trucks and other delivery vehicles plying the streets of the metropolis. Malacañang’s appeal for more patience has lost its appeal with people complaining that nothing has really been done in the last five years of the administration.

It was simply pathetic that Mar Roxas – the anointed Liberal Party standard bearer – characterized traffic as a sign of “economic prosperity,” earning the ire of people who see traffic as a clear sign that Metro Manila is dying with the congestion choking the life out of the city.

Nobody knows who has been delaying the rollout of key infrastructure projects that contribute to the everyday “Calvary” that people have to go through every single day. The perception is that the administration is now trying to “fasttrack” everything just so it can be said that they “started” something – without carefully evaluating the viability of the projects. Take for instance the P171 billion Philippine National Railways improvement project, in particular the South line of the North-South Railway Project.

A government think-tank had previously proposed that cargo be diverted to the Batangas Port to ease the congestion in Metro Manila, along with a suggestion for ICTSI to revive the PNR rail freight operations at its depot in Calamba, Laguna during off-peak hours. Just recently, the DOTC and PNR came out with an invitation to prequalify and bid for the design, construction, installation including operation and maintenance of the 56-km commuter rail from Tutuban to Calamba (with the possibility of extending to Batangas City) and a long-haul rail from Tutuban to Legaspi in Albay (which could continue up to Matnog in Sorsogon).

However, a review of the terms of reference and documents showed that the project is geared more towards commuter traffic without thought of the commercial aspect of using the PNR right-of-way (ROW) at grade level. For the project to be viable, the terms of reference must provide for the use of an elevated track for commuter traffic along the ROW from Malolos-Tutuban-Calamba and likewise reserve the ROW for commercial operation, industry players said.

The engineering and design parameters must be reviewed to maximize both the revenue and carrying capacities for the commercial and passenger potential of the PNR’s ROW. One recommendation is for the ROW section from Malolos to Calamba at grade to be reserved for commercial cargo operations, while commuter traffic will be serviced via the elevated rail track along this stretch.

Juan Peña, president of RAJI Inc. who has been working on a template for infrastructure development for Batangas and the nearby provinces including the island of Mindoro, noted that the “rail section from Calamba to Batangas is a corridor that will not only benefit PNR but has an impact on the future port expansion plans for the Batangas Port by the Philippine Ports Authority,” pointing out that PNR’s ROW along this stretch is almost completely taken over by informal settlers, and that the concerned agencies should study the viability of realigning the said stretch vis-a-vis the relocation of informal settlers. “The realignment would allow the government to increase the ROW to allow both the commuter and commercial operations at Grade for this particular line section,” Peña added.

While the railroad project is urgently needed, the present terms of reference will not be able to maximize the benefits of a railroad service that are supposed to support national development programs. Likewise, it would be much better to break down the huge project in stages and to address connectivity issues between the PNR, the LRT and MRT for the benefit of the commuting public. That’s the problem when officials who used to be “teka-teka” suddenly change their tune to “Now na!”

Sixth Freedom abuse

In our Aug. 13 column entitled “Unfair air practices,” we wrote about the upcoming air talks between the Philippines and UAE and that this could be disadvantageous to local carriers like the Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific. Industry observers note that the Philippine government should take a leaf from the US and European governments that are looking into revelations that the Gulf airlines have utilized over $42 billion in subsidies to have unfair advantage over other carriers.

Sources allege that the Gulf carriers will dump capacity and “poach” passenger air traffic flowing from the markets in Europe, the US and other places in the Middle East, and that unlike claims by the Gulf airlines, the Manila-Middle East market is not underserved. Being government entities funded by rich states, Emirates and Etihad have the capacity to undermine open skies policy and flout fair competition practices, reports said.

The $42 billion in subsidies may just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg as the amounts funneled to the gulf carriers may be much more than what has been unearthed. As a result, authorities in Europe and Canada are also reviewing current aviation agreements with Gulf States and are blocking further access to Gulf airlines, like the Netherlands that withheld more landing rights at Schiphol airport.

But unlike US carriers that are asking for “pre-emptive relief” against a future threat, the situation for local carriers is different since they are already fighting the corrosive effects of the Gulf carriers’ alleged poaching and market distortion. Philippine carriers operate a network of flights and routes to the Middle East, Europe and the East Coast – all of which are vulnerable to unfair competition from excessive Gulf carrier operations between Manila and these points. The Philippines is more competitive as a tourism destination, but if overwhelmed by excessive capacity from unfairly funded competitors, local carriers may not be able to sustain these direct flights – forcing OFWs and potential tourists to connect via Gulf carrier hubs just to fly to and from the Philippines.

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