3,500 families affected by road connector project

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada threw his support behind the P23.3-billion NLEX-SLEX (North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway) Connector Road project by relocating thousands of families that will be affected and securing the road right-of-way.

About 3,500 families in Manila will have to be moved, according to NLEX Corp.

Estrada said the eight-kilometer elevated highway that will connect NLEX and SLEX will ease vehicular traffic in Manila.

“I fully support the project,” Estrada said when he met representatives and engineers of NLEX Corp. “This will help ease the traffic problem, not only in Manila, but the whole metropolis and other nearby cities.”

The project will cut travel time from Buendia in Makati City to Balintawak in Quezon City from two hours to 20 minutes.

NLEX Corp. is the private sector partner of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the first Public-Private Partnership project approved by the Duterte administration. The project extends from the end of Segment 10 in C3 Road in Caloocan City to Santa Mesa, Manila.

The highway will also connect the common point of Skyway Stage 3, traversing mostly along the PNR rail track. Its interchanges will be on C3 in Caloocan City and España Blvd. in Manila.

Edward Castro of NLEX Corp. said 85 percent of the alignment of the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road will pass through 38 barangays in Manila.

Construction is set to start in 2018 and will be completed by 2020, according to Castro.

“We are coordinating with the Manila City government. We will notify the local government if there will be construction on the ground. By next week there will be schedules of the construction,” Castro said.

Duterte could end jeepney phaseout debate

If he really wants it, President Duterte can end the debate about the unconscionable and harebrained jeepney phaseout plan right now. Yes, he can.

Duterte can do it if he makes it an administration priority to allot P350-billion in order to purchase 200,000 new, modern, environment-friendly jeepneys. Or he can order his economic team to allot P87.5-billion every year for this very important program.

The Department of Transportation should be able to justify this price tag. For instance, it gives tens of billions of pesos to the MRT Corp. in “subsidy” and “bailouts.” For a change, the economists at the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management should exercise their brainpower to provide funding for essential, indispensable mass transport.

If the DOTr, DOF, and DBM can allot hundreds of billions in taxpayer money to finance Big Businesses in PPP and BBB, surely they wouldn’t be stingy in giving the same treatment to jeepney drivers of the Philippines.

There are many possible sources of funds for jeepney modernization. For instance, the Duterte government could renegotiate the agreement with the Ayala-Pangilinan LRT Manila consortium. At the very least, we would be able to collect rather than exempt P64-billion in real property taxes from these oligarchs. Also, the government could end the P34.9-billion subsidy for this business of the Ayala-Pangilinan project.

The combined P98.9-billion alone can be used to purchase 70,642 new, modern, and environment-friendly jeepneys at a unit price of P1.4-million.

For the remainder amounting to P251.1-billion, the Duterte government could be bold and creative:

Reduce the budget for debt servicing for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. To illustrate: The government programmed P647.27 billion for debt payment in 2017 – P334.87 billion for interest payment, and P312.40 billion for amortization. Duterte could always ask his economists to restructure or renegotiate the terms of some of obligations to carve out the needed funds for the jeepneys.

Reduce or abolish tax breaks for billionaires and multimillionaires.

Reduce or abolish the P800-million budget for Operation Double Barrel.

Take back the P4.8-billion subsidy for MRT Corp. for 2018.

Take back the P1.8-billion budget for the LRT-MRT Common Station, and let the private sector finance it.

Abolish the P124-million budget for US military bases under EDCA.

Recover the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.

This solution will make the matapobre recoil in horror. In their warped sense of the national budget, they can be galante about our taxpayer money only when it comes to the oligarchs but are stingy with our poor. But this “austerity” on direct public services is exactly what caused our jeepney drivers to remain poor.

Ever since inventive Filipinos took the US military jeeps and turned them into the national mass transport mode we now know, government has never given jeepney drivers and operators any direct subsidy or assistance. (The only government aid they’ve received is the paltry fuel subsidy.) Had successive governments not neglected this informal sector under the dogma of “austerity” and simple “kasakiman,” our jeepney drivers and operators would’ve been able to upgrade the jeepneys, and our local jeepney manufacturers would’ve been spared from bankruptcy.

If the state invests in jeepneys, the demand from local jeepney manufacturers would rise. They could expand operations, take advantage of Filipino professionals for R&D, and employ tens of thousands. More funds could be directed for this important Filipino industry.

There are only two possible financiers of this expensive P350-billion jeepney modernization. The first is the government, whose annual budget is an average of P3-trillion. The second is the oligarchy through its banks and its growing interests in transportation.

Right now, what Duterte and the DOTr wants is for jeepney drivers and operators – mostly poor, categorized as part of the informal sector, and cannot normally qualify for loans – to embrace highly possible debt bondage with the oligarchs’ banks.

We could be pretty sure these banks are preparing “special deals” for jeepney drivers that would jack up the total price, extend the amortization period, require new collateral, and set the stage for the private takeover of entire fleets or routes from drivers and operators who cannot possibly sustain the expensive modernization.

At the risk of myself being seen as excessively generous, I think Duterte can still apologize and take back his harsh words against the poor jeepney drivers who number around 500,000. Duterte has the power to end the debate and improve the lives of 500,000 families. Otherwise, Duterte would be giving them the axe, sentencing them to a life of even worse poverty because they would lose their livelihood.

We all want a modern, future-ready, adequate, and environment-friendly mass transportation system. Duterte cannot just make it appear out of thin air. He and his economic team can no longer fool us into believing that the problem (the oligarchs’s disastrous and yet profitable control of the transportation sector) is the solution.

If there’s any investment worth pouring taxpayer money on, it is mass transportation. The state must invest in the jeepney drivers and operators who – to be honest – keep this nation moving, and on whom cities and especially towns depend on for mass transportation.

Nobody disagrees that it is time for the Philippines to modernize and to invest in jeepneys. It is half a century overdue. Duterte should put money where his mouth is and lead the way.

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