Last Wednesday we talked about two of the three main bottlenecks in resolving the country’s transportation crisis (“A crisis in public transportation”, page 10, July 6, 2016 issue of Cebu Daily News—eds), namely the procurement process and legal challenges.
The last but not the least of these problems is administration. In fact it’s quite simply the most problematic of the three and is also the basis for solving the other two.
It is also the one that will yield the most benefits once properly addressed. The problem of administration simply seeks to answer the most basic question of commuters and motorists: Who is responsible for solving the traffic/transportation mess we are in?
A look at the many agencies tasked with road transportation and traffic show a lot of overlapping in mandates. The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is tasked with licensing, vehicle registration and enforcement.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is tasked with public transport franchises, fares and enforcement. The local government unit (LGU) is tasked with limited transport planning (tricycles), land use and enforcement. The PNP is tasked with enforcement.
The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) is concerned with transport planning and project implementation. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is concerned with road construction and maintenance (together with flooding, utilities and other government facilities).
In Metro Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) also comes in as an added layer of “coordination” between the different cities.
The classic end result is inefficiency, a lack of responsibility and a general failure by government to properly address the needs of its constituents.
Reorganization therefore is a no-brainer and is the one step necessary to achieve meaningful gains in addressing the transportation crisis. There are many success stories in countries that have undertaken reorganization of their transportation and traffic agencies.
My personal favorite is that of Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA). The LTA was the result of a merger of several government agencies, namely the Registry of Vehicles, Mass Rapid Transit Corporation, Road and Transportation Division of the Public Works Department and Land Transportation Division of its Ministry of Communications.
Since its merger, the LTA has been at the forefront of the implementation and management of its world-renowned transportation system.
There is a sense of a unified and holistic approach towards transportation of goods and people inherent in every project they undertake, whether it is in bicycle lanes, mass transportation initiatives or in the regular updating of their master plan.
It isn’t a perfect system, of course. Singapore is now a victim of its own success with the overcrowding of train and bus services in the past years, but there is a sense of responsibility and accountability with the way the LTA has reoriented itself to address these concerns head-on.
The proposed Transportation Crisis Act of 2016 seems to be giving the right set of tools to the Duterte administration.
Once passed, the ball will now be in the court of Transportation Secretary Art Tugade and his management team at DOTC to show their capabilities in rolling out projects and hopefully set the stage for more meaningful reforms in the transportation sector.
(Atty. Rafael Yap heads the Cebu City Transportation Office and is Cebu City Hall’s point person for the Bus Rapid Transport project)
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