By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz & Lorenz S. Marasigan
THE only way to solve the seemingly intractable traffic congestion in all of Metro Manila’s transportation systems lies on one crucial requirement: The country must decide to migrate to a federal form of government. So some sectors say.
Federalism is the state by which the current government will be decentralized, erasing the so-called Imperial Manila off the map. Under a federal form of government, regions will be converted to states, and powers will be distributed locally.
It will allow states and sub-states to have a firm say on how they want to grow independently.
Such a form of government also promotes competition and gives businessmen choices on which states they would like to invest. Hence, President Duterte is pushing for the said shift to redistribute wealth to all regions.
But in order to effectively implement this plan, a clear-cut transportation road map for the development of interstate connectivity must be crafted. Today the Department of Transportation is collating all possible programs to move forward to having a federal transport sector.
Scattered islands
TRANSPORT experts said the government must consider the geographical nature of the Philippines. Being scattered to more than 7,000 islands, connectivity is key to implementing a successful federal government.
“The role of transportation and communications in federalism is critical,” Rene S. Santiago, who sits as president to strategic investment and project development services firm Bellwether Advisory Inc., told the BusinessMirror. “That is why we need to make sure that substates will be interconnected not only through communications, but also physical transport.”
He explained that, under a federal form of government, economic growth will be distributed to different states, thereby decentralizing the current scenario, wherein Metro Manila gets the chunk of the growth and the crumbs are distributed to other cities.
“There will be a rise of more urban centers, as there will be more development in other cities,” Santiago said. “People will stop looking at Metro Manila as the only city for jobs, hence it decongests Metro Manila. This is really the solution to the traffic problem in the metropolis.”
Other benefits
TRANSPORTATION Spokesman Cherie Mercado-Santos cited other benefits that Filipinos can enjoy under a federal form of government.
“Transportation projects might hasten under a federal system,” she told the BusinessMirror. “Since federal states would identify clearer geographical and political divisions, process in terms of investment and infrastructure could be expedited and cover a larger area.”
Mercado-Santos added that “one investment covering a whole region might have to deal with one or two government authorities.”
“Federal states would benefit from land, rail, sea and air connections that the transportation department is planning to connect the whole archipelago.”
While Santiago agrees with this proposition, he believes that the emphasis should be given on the development of the shipping industry, as the Philippines is segmented by large bodies of water.
“Most of the infrastructure will now be at the regional level. So what is important under a federal system is how to reconcile, for example, kinks on how to connect substates via expressways and seaports,” he said.
Ro-ro review
ACCORDING to Santiago, the “obsession” of Mr. Duterte over the development of rails to connect islands and land masses should be realigned.
“The emphasis should be on the development of the roll-on/roll-off, or ro-ro, system, a multimodal ro-ro, to be precise,” he said.
The Road Roll-On, Roll-Off Transport System (RRTS) is a network of terminals linked by ro-ro vessels from Batangas port and to any point of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. It is designed to improve and promote the inter-island sea transportation in the Philippines.
The four highways under the RRTS are the following: the Western Nautical Highway, Central Nautical Highway, Pan Philippine Highway and the Eastern Nautical Highway.
According to the Maritime Industry Authority, the Western Nautical and Pan Philippine Highways are the two most successful routes under the said transport system.
There are 19 operators of ro-ro services in the Western Nautical Highway, with 48 vessels plying the following routes: Batangas City to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro (17 vessels); Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, to Caticlan, Malay, Aklan (seven vessels); Dumanggas, Iloilo, to Bacolod, Negros Occidental (17 vessels); and Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte (seven vessels).
The Pan Philippine Highway, on the other hand, has eight operators with 17 vessels on the following routes: Matnog, Sorsogon, to Allen, Northern Samar (12 vessels); and Liloan, Southern Leyte, to Lipata, Surigao del Norte (five vessels).
For the Central Nautical Highway, 15 operators offer services with 23 vessels. The routes are as follows: Cawayan, Masbate, to Bogo, Cebu (one vessel); Cebu City to Tubigon, Bohol (15 vessels); Jagna, Bohol, to Balbagon, Mambajao, Camiguin (one vessel); and Benoni, Mahinog, Camiguin, to Balingoan, Misamis Oriental (six vessels).
Unproductive route
THE Eastern Nautical Highway of the RRTS is the most unsuccessful or unproductive highway because, to date, no vessel is operating in the area in view that certain portions of the Eastern Nautical Highway overlap with the Central Nautical and Pan Philippine Highway, particularly those located in Masbate and Surigao City.
Currently, there are 27 seaports in the Philippines—operated by both the government and the private sector.
Data from the Philippine Ports Authority showed that the shipping industry continues to thrive to date. Domestic ship calls were at 384,895 last year. Combined with the 10,200 foreign ship calls, ports around the Philippines handled 395,095 ships in 2015.
Cargo throughput was at 223.67 million metric tons (MMT), with foreign cargoes accounting for the lion’s share of 134.62 MMT. Passenger traffic, on the other hand, was at 62.76 million.
“It just goes to show how sea connectivity is crucial given our geographical nature, and this will be a major concern of the federal government,” Santiago said.
PPPs to be more competitive
IMPROVING connectivity via infrastructure could be done in three ways: via government funding, a foreign assistance package, and through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program.
Santiago believes that once a federal system is in play, the PPP arena will be more competitive, as investors now have options on literally where to put their bets.
“States will compete for investment, which is good, hence, giving private sector a choice on where to put their money,” he said.
PPP Center Executive Director Ferdinand A. Pecson said his camp has to address the need “to create PPP projects that can attract investments outside of traditional growth centers or cities, such as Metro Manila” for states to consider.
“In a federal setup, the support of the local governments, which will be the major players in producing realistic and properly structured PPP projects, is very critical,” he told the BusinessMirror. “Should this be the case, the PPP Center will continue to exercise its mandate, which is to provide the necessary technical support and heighten capacity-building initiatives to help formulate well-structured and viable PPP projects.”
The government has yet to release an official plan on how to move forward with the transport sector once Filipino citizens decide to shift to another form of government. This process, according to Santiago, will give the government ample time to thresh out the specifics of the plan, including policies on interstate connectivity, and the implementation of intelligent transport systems.
Image credits: Ed Davad