POLITICS AND DEBACLES

Travel time delays are assigned with a monetary cost equivalent to transportation or urban planning, in the context that delays are equivalent to lost productivity and fuel consumption at zero millage.

 

The transfer of a portion of the capital will cost less than what we are losing to traffic, flood problems and disaster recovery, and all that stress the people had to go through (MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino, A-26, Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 17, 2013).”  Senate Bill 655 “asking Congress to create a National Capital Commission (NPC) to study the possible relocation of the national capital” was filed Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, seeking the transfer of the country’s seat of power.  

 

There may be some logic to it but it will still prove too costly, just building the new Offices, both for national government agencies and incidental facilities of local government units.  Include to it the site acquisition costs, with the projected real property valuation escalation due to price speculation and expected improvements.    This is one of the arguments posed against the division of the province of Camarines Sur - the attendant price tag of a new provincial seat and additional personal services’ fiscal requirements.

The projected move within a span of six years was patterned after the transfer of the seat of government from Putrajaya to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia in Brazil.

But questions may be asked:

 

Is the Philippine economy able to finance the project?  How would this affect other priority infra projects without resorting to new taxes and duties?  What measures have been proposed in the expected negative effects of spatial reorganization and economic dislocations of government workers?

On the contrary, it is not the seat of the national government and its clientele that causes congestion, but the concentration of industries, academic centers, commercial, entertainment and employment hubs that contribute to the “bursting” of the metropolis.

 

The government sector is but a fragment compared to other trip or activity generators in the entire Metro Manila.

There are other long-term but effective measures that may be adopted, like the re-assessment of urban zoning, re-engineering of urban plans, and establishment of new urban, commercial, industrial, and educational hubs outside and around Metro Manila, that should  be interconnected with rapid mass transport systems.  It’s simply bleeding the metropolis of its excess commercial activities and easing it out  to other areas.

 

The Philippines is not deficient of top-notch architects and urban planners so we should leave planning and technicalities to the care of politicians.