THE artist or writer will always view a piece of infrastructure like the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) as a thing of beauty—or he is no creative creature at all.

For one, the roadway teems with magnificence that can match the famed world wonders.  At sundown alone, the SCTEx boasts of a breathtaking backdrop of mist-covered mountains and, minus the rains, a soft explosion of vibrant cumulus clouds.

For another, you watch in rapt attention silhouettes breaking through layers, interspersed with shafts of sunlight.  And, if you are chained to the word, you will suddenly find yourself exclaiming with poet Gerald Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with grandeur!” 

The road revels of man’s innate artistry.

When you reach that portion of the expressway leading to Subic that slices through Mount Jalung, you say, “wow!” and instinctively offer a toast to the SCTEx engineers who, I’m sure, were touched by the muse of poetry—wittingly or unwittingly—when they were themselves busy building their work of immense art.

For, the arts are not the exclusive domain of those who paint or write or sing. Artistry and white magic also touch builders of asphalt and concrete, marketers of products and services, and financial wizards who package a plan to fund such awesome projects.

THAT is my quick reaction to the news that the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) has put together a proposal that is at once both innovative and creative.

As you may have read in the papers already, the MPTC has submitted an unsolicited bid to the builders and owners of SCTEx, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), to buy BCDA’s usufruct rights to manage, operate and finance its business operations.

I am inclined to say that this offer is a stroke of genius in financial and marketing creativity.  Know why?

Well, as I understand it, getting usufruct rights is like getting a concession at the SCTEx.  And the move recalls to mind what the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) had done a while back: It likewise acquired the usufruct rights of the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) in order to manage and operate the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the most modern piece of engineering marvel this part of the globe.

SINCE the usufruct acquisition by the MNTC, the NLEX has never been that well-run.  Kinks had been smoothened out so fast that the expressway has virtually become a benchmark on how to run a major artery linking the metropolis to both the Central and Northern Luzon.

I must admit I have a personal stake here because the SCTEx and NLEX are not just actually very familiar to me. I love them both from the bottom of my heart because, at least once a month, I traverse them both during my regular pilgrimage to the land of my roots that is Pangasinan.  Call me a romanticist, a provinciano even.  But it always gives me joy to be home to where really home is to me: my birthplace.  And, each time I do it, I get the bonus of savoring the feast of the eyes offered by both NLEX and SCTEx for their combined beauty, not to mention the comfort and ease they provide to every traveler weary of the smog and roar of the asphalt jungle that is the metropolis.

And, yes, it matters much to me to say that the two expressways have the same PR man, my friend Dante Velasco, who is not only my kabaleyan from Pangasinan (Dagupan City) but, more importantly, is himself a poet of note masquerading as a public-relations guru.  His versatility of Shakespeare’s tongue—both oral and written—has become legend that there’s never a dull moment whenever I have coffee or beer or even wine with him, no matter that our trysts happen just once in a blue moon. Right, aro?  But anyway, that’s another story.

The package put together by MPTC for the usufruct offer is itself “poetry in finance,” as Dante put it. 

AS SCTEx concessionaire, MPTC can actually fund, run and manage the longest expressway in the country.  It can raise SCTEx’s volume of traffic, increase revenues and, yes, when SCTEx’s loans mature, MPTC will make sure these debts are paid. I can’t find any other idea brighter than this.

Even with the entry of MPTC, everything will virtually remain the same.  As one wag loves to tell me, “The difference is the same.”

So, once the deal is sealed, what will BCDA do as owner of SCTEx?

As I understand it, the BCDA will always remain the owner of “a thing of beauty,” which the SCTEx officials have carved out of vast fields, mountains and rivers. Thus, in that respect, my salutations go to BCDA president, former Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya, for his leadership that made sure this SCTEx will be built according to timetable—and in a manner that inspires pride among us Pinoys.

And, as events and trends would indicate, the BCDA will continue to be a force to reckon with as it targets to develop other base lands and makes them growth-drivers of the economy.

NOW, again, what makes MPTC a good concessionaire?

 Well, from a distance, I can see that the company is the tollway company of the Metro Pacific Group, a good one at that.  For one, it is headed by telephone tycoon MVP, Manny V. Pangilinan.  For another, MVP’s track record speaks for itself.

These days, the Metro Pacific Group has been in high-profile acquisition bids, the latest of which is its sizeable interest in Meralco.

From what I hear from the Meralco side, where my friend Ping de Jesus holds sway as president, the Metro Pacific Group’s marketing savvy has begun rubbing off on the giant utility firm.

This could be the fresh infusion of marketing wizardry that is actually needed by SCTEx. I am not saying that SCTEx people can’t hack it, but if MVP’s bright boys join the fray, I see the coming together of the best and the brightest.

I have watched MVP’s management style at close range in sports (modesty aside, I’ve been in sports for ages now), MVP being also very active in the PBA (Talk ‘N Text), UAAP (Ateneo) and NCAA (San Beda) and even in boxing as he is the titular head of the ABAP (Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines).  MVP has that touch that turns garbage into gold, indeed.  Go ask Ricky Vargas, his trusted lieutenant at PLDT.

BY the way, I gathered that MPTC offered to pay concession fees the amount of which I have yet to unearth. But if I know the ways of MVP, he does not scrimp on funds when acquiring a prized catch like SCTEx.  Thus with generous concession fees, BCDA may not only sit pretty when the deal is done, but it can as well continue to concentrate on other imperatives thrust into its business mandate.

I have fallen in love as well with SCTEx, as my first love will always be NLEX. (Marlene O, please take note of that.)  

NLEX had been there since the ’60s, beginning with my college days when the portable Olympia typewriter was in vogue among aspiring poets and fictionists like Dante Velasco and me.  (Laptop is in but, alas, my laptop just retired. Hu-hu-hu.)

But since Day One when SCTEx opened its portals to the public, how I wish to see SCTEx bloom to its full potential, without the usual burdens of budget and low traffic volume. It’s a reality in business that you need funds to gun up your growth engine and to remain strong in the business. May I paraphrase a writer who said: “I have the simplest of tastes. I settle only for the best.”

As always, I want to see SCTEx at its best.  And, one sure way to achieve that is for it to have a partner that knows the tollway business like no other.

I should know.  For I take pride—I have bragging rights, if you will—in having the inside track on how the NLEX is being run from the first day that Ping de Jesus and his intrepid staff (Marlene O, take a bow, once more) took over the reins of the expressway—smooth as silk.

If our SCTEx officials don’t act now and continue to listen to what the late, lamented William Safire said as “the nattering nabobs of negativism,” it might be too late.

As one poet said, which Dante Velasco loves to quote with undiminished passion: “Seize the day!”

Tarry no more or there might be no more “hay to make” in the sun.

Pee stop Towing companies had a field day in the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy as thousands of vehicles were submerged in floodwaters.  Car shops, too. I just hope there was no overpricing in any manner…Kudos to Mayor Peter Rey Bautista of Baguio for his initiative to donate half a million pesos from the city’s coffers to Ondoy’s victims…On behalf of Michelle’s parents, Ramon and May Uy of Bacolod, I wish to thank all those kindred souls who helped rescue Michelle from a rooftop of Provident Village in Marikina at dawn of Sunday (September 27) at the height of Ondoy’s wrath…And, finally, I condole deeply with the families of those who perished in the worst typhoon to ever hit the metropolis; with God’s grace, may their souls rest in peace.