President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III is quoted as saying that the high volume of traffic commuters face while going along EDSA is a sign of a booming economy. He did not limit his pronouncement to the high traffic volume; he also employed positive spin on the rise of the Philippine Peso, which otherwise should be a cause for concern. He further added that these were better alternatives to having “dismal economic activity.”
“Maganda na siguro ang problema na binabanggit na ma-trapik sa EDSA, tama po yan, dahil marami ang nasa kalsada, buhay na buhay ang ating economiya kaysa naman walang trapik sa EDSAa dahil wala ng makabili ng gasolina na patakbuhin ang kanyang sasakyan (The heavy traffic on EDSA is a better problem, that’s right, because many vehicles are on the road because the economy is doing well. Having no traffic on EDSA, on the other hand, means nobody can buy gasoline for their cars),” the President said.
Is it just me, or did I just smell another big non-sequitur brain fart?
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BS Aquino might as well be telling his “bosses” to deal with the traffic because it has been there since time immemorial. The commuters have to deal with utter discomfort, overcrowded transport utilities, pollution coming from vehicles, and the utter stupidity of Filipino drivers, but hey, it’s a booming economy! The more gas his “bosses” buy, the more his oligarch friends get richer! It’s a booming economy!
Nice try, Noynoy. With every pronouncement like this that you make, you show the Philippines why you earned the BS moniker. Please, please stop trying to baffle us with bullshit like “booming economy” just to cover up your government’s complete lack of any systemic solution to the traffic problem primarily along EDSA.
What have been the results of the following methods that have been tried to ease the traffic situation?
1. That moronic road blessing commissioned by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) July last year.
2. The attempt to introduce a fixed salary scheme for bus drivers and conductors which was ultimately stopped by the Supreme Court.
3. The ABC bus segregation scheme where three classifications of buses stop at specified points
Out of the three above, the third seems to make the most sense. But whether it alone is enough remains to be seen.
While both private and public vehicles significantly contribute to the traffic volume, the inefficiency of the public transport system and the Filipinos’ lingering stupidity in dealing with it are things that have been festering problems for years. Unless the government recognizes the futility of tingi-tingi solutions to three (3) fundamental roadblocks to solving the Philippine public transport system in the Philippines then the problems will persist. A large scale systemic solution is needed to deal with the high traffic volume.
With regards to the rise of the Philippine Peso, the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector here in the Philippines does not consider it good news. The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) has expressed concern that rising costs and decreasing revenue make it more difficult for them to keep operations here in the Philippines.
Keep in mind that local jobs provided by the BPO sector constitute a big part of the pie. A rise in the peso will only serve to slow down or curtail all together any more prospects of growth in that industry.
Let us not forget as well that because overseas foreign workers (OFW’s) send home to their palamunin relatives back home in US dollars, a rising peso means that the dollar’s value in peso steadily becomes less and less.
So once again, what is the government doing long-term to steer the Philippine economy away from its excessive dependence on BPO and OFW remittances?
Is this the booming economy that BS Aquino is talking about? The traffic volume problem and the inflation risk waiting to happen are signs of it, indeed.
A bubble waiting to burst, to be more exact.
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
Aquino has managed to make me facepalm at his stupidity yet again
He excels at that.
BS Aquino deliberately forgets his history: during his mother’s term as preznit, Manila suffered some of the worst traffic jams the country has ever seen.
Selective memory much? It’s really too bad that most people have forgotten how much of an incompetent president his mom was.
…or maybe bs actually believes that the traffic jams during his mother’s time was also a sign of unprecedented progress after the toppling of a dictatorship. :/
traffic jams the new measure of economic progress!
i bet he was noynoying at university because he never says anything to make you think he even has a basic understanding of economics ( micro or macro) let alone supposedly studied it. p-noy meeting the likes of angela merkel must be cringe-worthy, for merkel.
reason why he never has had any serious interviews with serious interviewers (from abroad) since clearly there are none here, just gossip columnists. he knows nothing about economics.
he can fool many of the uneducated people through propaganda,but not his intellectual superiors.
I once read that a Thai tour guide in Bangkok said that if it’s not traffic, you’re not in Bangkok!
Soon, there will be no more straws for him to clutch desperately for.
Don’t worry… there will always be the story-line about his…. ahem… his love-life!
And that his Glock does not fire blanks!
I find it hard to follow the new bus segregation scheme along EDSA because the names of the bus stops are different despite some stops are almost across each other -__- Maybe it’s just me or at least they should display a route map on each stop, so other bus riders can understand the new system.
Heavy traffic is an indication that there is zero effort to completely address the urban planning basketcase that is Manila.
from his litany last wednesday during LP’s trip to Cebu. Oh, cognitive dissonance.
There are countries with better economies and with better traffic conditions. Try again, Mr. President.
Congested traffics of jeepneys and cars were always there. They were there, when I was in college in the Philippines. The rise of Philippine Peso was because of the OFW slaves. Japan’s Yen has low exchange rate with the U.S. Dollar. Yet, their economy is booming. So, is China’s exchange rate.
Maybe Aquino needs to increase his anti depressant medications. He is seeing things already. He is delusional. He has guns. He may start shooting people soon.
Well, he is the President of the country, he can probably shoot someone and get away with it.
This should come as no surprise, Aquino is trying to spin a ‘train-wreck’ into a ‘box-office hit’. Sort of like turning a piece of shit into a doughnut by simply rolling it in sugar, u kno? It just doesn’t work….kinda like almost everything in the country.
And the yellow kool-aid drinking zombies say, hallelujah!!!
…..What an idiot our Prez is (duh!). Why I could say that we have numerous slave which is a sign of economic growth. It’s really unbelievable that our head of state can say things like this and expects to get away with and expects us to swallow it…..
heavy traffic is better than no traffic
Sendonggirl,
Smart president better than dumb president who says dumb things supported by dumb people.
WTF, Sendonggirl? A capital with unmanageable traffic will soon have its economy crashing down on them, despite the moolah on gas. Don’t you realize that faster traffic along the roads promote better commerce for everybody?
Flawed logic at its best.
Translation: I always arrive late for my work even if it’s an emergency because I don’t wanna be forever alone. Jeez your boss hated you very much for doing that are you? I hope you get fired.
Can’t we have better traffic :-)?
Can you at least tell us what’s the connection between traffic and economy? You know sendong”girl”, if you really want to impress us, don’t post idiotic statements like that.
Missing the point.
Please tell that to countries like Singapore and Malaysia. 😛
And heavy traffic is better why exactly?
And you just completely missed the point of said article. It must be relief not to overly burden your intellectually stunted mind by not thinking hard of relevant issues…..
human trafficking is also on the increase.
no doubt human rights abuser p-noy also sees this as good for the economy. idiot
Must be another attempt at de-problematizing something. People complain about traffic, but here comes someone who says, “hey, it’s not a problem, it’s an economic indicator!”
Mali. From any angle, mali. Just mali.
booming economy kagad? hindi ba puedeng mismanaged muna ;D
nakaka inis itong presidente ginawang pang halimbawa ang traffic sa edsa keso buhay na buhay ang economiya ng bansa,,baliw talaga..
Traffic was always bad since 1986. Looks like Da Prez has always been living under a rock. Or never passed through Edsa.
Very high traffic volume in Manila for me has always been a sign of urban overcrowding or congesting and poor urban planning. There are too many people staying in Manila (count the squatters, even they have cars), and planning was never done to properly locate communities to minimize road congestion.
Why this smelly, congested urban hellhole not even installed an extensive subway line to this day is something I will never comprehend.
Do a little research first.
Subways aren’t possible. Or they aren’t goint to be easy to install. The ground in and around Manila is too soft. Easier to use ground level electric rail. Incidentally, before World War II, MERALCO operated electric trains for Manila.
@J. Saint
From what I’ve read, soft soil is not a problem with subways.
You may watch how they’re being constructed in Discovery or History Channel. Or just check this one –
http://lib.hpu.edu.cn/comp_meeting/ICGGE%B9%FA%BC%CA%B5%D8%D6%CA%B9%A4%B3%CC%BB%E1%D2%E9%C2%DB%CE%C4%CA%FD%BE%DD%BF%E2/PAPERS/INVITED/LECA.PDF
More or less, funding will be the problem if you want something like that in Metro Manila.
I’m fully aware of the recent developments in tunnel building and subway construction in the United States, Europe, Japan and China. Once, a long time ago, that was what I was involved with.
If you look back at through my post, I clarified that subway systems “aren’t going to be easy to install” in Metro Manila. Loose soil and clay under Manila aren’t the only considerations. And obviously parts of Metro Manila such as San Juan City, Pasig City and Mandaluyong City rest on much more stable, heavy bedrock. There is also the fact that geologically, the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, where 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur. Coupled with the constant movement of tectonic plates, soil in the Philippines becomes highly saturated during heavy rains.
Long story short — with all the measures required to properly construct a subway system in Metro Manila and make it work safely, the cost would be exorbitant at our current level of economic development. The project was deemed nonviable. The people I worked with then haven’t changed their opinion.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t others who think they can make a go of it.
There was an announcement back in December 2011 from South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group saying that they had won a $1.1 billion deal to build a subway system in Metro Manila.
http://news.mk.co.kr/english/newsRead.php?sc=30800017&cm=Market&year=2011&no=839538&selFlag=sc&relatedcode=&wonNo=&sID=308
On our side, the deal was to be handled by an unnamed “local private project developer commissioned by the Philippine government.” Haven’t heard any news about this since.
—
Also, Jack Keefe, an American civil engineer who has worked mostly in Asia has a proposal to use medium technology roadheader excavating equipment and conveyor belts to accomplish the digging instead of Tunnel Boring Machines made popular by the Discovery Channel and History. This takes into account the type of geology in Metro Manila as well as the financial aspect of this kind of subway project.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Solving-Manilas-Transport-Congestion—A-Rail-Subway-Solution&id=992070
Correction:
Subways aren’t possible. Or they aren’t going to be easy to install. The ground in and around Manila is too soft. Easier to use ground level electric rail. Incidentally, before World War II, MERALCO operated electric trains for Manila.
it seems this pres accepted in his own mind that the RH bill he signed into law is contradicting in what he said that booming economy is due to lots of people in the street.. it seems that he believed more and more people should be born to boost the philippine economy..welcome to pro-life mr president..madaldal kasi itong pres na eto kaya more talk more mistakes..
All talk, No action. Complete opposite of what an ideal leader should be. No amount of propaganda can change that fact.
Most major cities have more than one road. Manila has a serious lack of infrastructure which makes traffic look worse than it actually is.
If you took every vehicle older than 15 years off the road then Edsa would be like a North Korean motorway. Empty
Converting a negative effect of the economy into something beneficial? Pathetic. Such a troll is AbNoy.
Then again, one easy step to alleviate the super-congestion of vehicles in that hell city is to control the issuance of driving licenses from LTFRB and DOTC. Make an “idiot driver” filter from the renewing of licenses, or just setting a vehicle cap for the city or eliminating the vehicles of drivers who doesn’t even own their own residential parking lots. You know, majority of drivers who owns their own vehicle don’t even park their cars at their own carparks. Psh
I agree, the most cost effective way of relieving traffic is through discipline, which apparently most pinoy motorist has absolutely do not have any. Also the squatter mentality is very apparent on the road, be it if the idiot is driving a luxury vehicle or an old run down ricer car. Just filter these idiots off the roads, then I am pretty sure we will end up with 75% less vehicles on the road. I dont care about public transport if it gets affected big time. Here in KL, I also have to wait for the bus to go to work not the other way around which is the case in the Philippines, the buses are already waiting for their passenger still having a shower.
“What have been the results of the following methods that have been tried to ease the traffic situation?
“1. That moronic road blessing commissioned by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) July last year.
“2. The attempt to introduce a fixed salary scheme for bus drivers and conductors which was ultimately stopped by the Supreme Court.
“3. The ABC bus segregation scheme where three classifications of buses stop at specified points
“Out of the three above, the third seems to make the most sense. But whether it alone is enough remains to be seen.”
Disagree. The premise is all wrong to begin with. Having bus companies and jeepneys compete à la “survival of the fittest” was one of the most idiotic things the Ramos administration ever did. The underlying reason for which seems to be solely to give retired military officers and government officials a quick source of income. We have to acknowledge the basic fact that the mass transportation system employed in Metro Manila is ineffectual, chaotic and just plain stupid.
A more organized solution to controlling the buses is to cancel all the franchises and bid out the bus routes to the bus companies and/or transportation cooperatives according to an established criteria. That includes having facilities (like a garage with actual working buses that are roadworthy) to deliver mass transportation services. This means competition for bus companies is over once the bidding is done and a contract with the winner is signed.
The other thing that should be done is to improve the metro rail system. Right now it doesn’t even have a depot.
“A more organized solution to controlling the buses is to cancel all the franchises and bid out the bus routes to the bus companies and/or transportation cooperatives according to an established criteria. That includes having facilities (like a garage with actual working buses that are roadworthy) to deliver mass transportation services. This means competition for bus companies is over once the bidding is done and a contract with the winner is signed.”
Because of the labor union. Remember the Metro Manila Transit?
“The other thing that should be done is to improve the metro rail system. Right now it doesn’t even have a depot.”
They have the depot. The problem is the units are insufficient. Take note that the fare is government subsidized.
If we want solution, the accessible right now is the strict implementation of stickter practical traffic rules.
And how to do that?
Start with the traffic enforcers. There should be the traffic enforcers’ supervisors to manage and who will own up the screw-ups.
Just observe the traffic situation along Taft and Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran. They’re all artificial. Intentionally done!
I remember the MMTC quite well.
All this says is that the national government is beholden to special interest groups and that because of this, the Philippines has failed to implement a proper mass transit system. The strict implementation (and observance) of laws is a given in any civilized society. That isn’t new.
—
I concede that I was hasty in saying the MRT “doesn’t even have a depot” when I meant that the resources are inadequate. Not to be overly dramatic but the North Avenue station and depot hardly has the kind of facilities that are appropriate for the servicing and maintenance of a fleet of trains in this modern age. The “depot” was built sort of after the fact. It does little more than provide “parking.”
—
The fact that the national government subsidizes MRT 3 again points to the fact that Filipino leaders are beholden to special interests and this causes them to lose control over projects which should be carried out in the national interest.
From its inception, construction of the MRT 3 was overpriced. The Ramos administration bent over backward to ensure that all the partners involved got a piece of the pie.
The station infrastructure along EDSA, from an architectural standpoint, is an ugly mess. The most obvious item of note is the fact that none of the stations resemble the others. It looks as if several different contractors each had their own ideas about how to build a station and went ahead with it regardless of any standard. Which is pretty much what happened. This is a stark contrast with the coherent design of MRT 2, spearheaded by the Marubeni Corporation of Japan.
MRT 3’s Czech train cars are designed for climates farther north of the equator than the Philippines, not tropical weather. The train tracks are too wide; trains cannot travel faster than approximately 70 kph or they will run the risk of derailment. The trains’ automatic warning systems used to sound off regularly in the early days because of this. Later someone turned the warning klaxon off.
All this because the partners involved in the project were more concerned with making a buck rather than putting together the correct mix of resources.
Today, the Sumitomo maintenance is still ridiculously overpriced. And the national government subsidizes fares because given a choice, Filipinos would rather not pay for an MRT ride.
—
Therein lies the problem. We implemented a mass transit system that is inadequate and out of control. This needs to be reversed and replaced with a more effective one. Implementation of the law is only a part of it.
Furthermore, these things — getting the so-called “transport organizations” under control, implementing an efficient mass transit system, and enforcing the law — require POLITICAL WILL. Unfortunately, the Philippines hasn’t had a leader in recent memory with the backbone required to do what has to be done.
The transport boundary system should be eliminated.
Exactly.
And going further, the Philippines needs to bring order to the our mass transit system by allowing the private sector to run buses on established transportation routes, with fixed bus stops according to a fixed schedule, driven by trained bus drivers receiving a commensurate salary.
Maybe Noynoy can point to the lecture his predecessor and former economic prof gave that correlated traffic to the economy,
BS Aquino’s Heavy Traffic Economic Theory is now an instant hit. His genius is very apparent. LOL!
Someone on the FB group posted this: “Walang Trapik sa Switzerland? Di maunlad ang ekonimiya nila…diba PeNoy???”
The Metro Manila traffic system is symbolic of how we are governed.
The way da Pinoy drives is symbolic of how law and order is (dis)regarded.
So the next time you find yourself stuck in traffic, just consider these points and turn-up the radio.
Oh wait…..the music’s crappy too!
Kung walang kurap, walang traffic!
1. Too many vehicles, some very, very old. In 1986, I personally drove a Cortina I bought eight years earlier. When I drove to Malacanang in March 1986 after Malacanang had been cleared of mines, security would not let me in, incredulous that a Cabinet Member would drive on his own and the car was more masilla then green.
1.1. Kanos are supposed to change models every two or three years. Liberalized terms enable more people to buy vehicles.
2. Too few roads, some designed crazily so that cloverleaf would like like a parking lot. Te stretch from Buendia to Edsa, unlighted, tugudog-tugodog with traffic going every which way at two crucial choke points.
3. Too little discipline. Jaywalkers galore. Jeeps at corners, Trikes in counter-flow. Squeegees. Beggars and babies (Madonna and child).
4. Malls all over, not away from the population. Another SM is going up on Sucat Road, and for me to visit my Dulce would be at dawn or midnight. No traffic impact evaluation
5. The nation has more money because PNoy at the top does not lie cheat or steal. He travels so he would know the road system elsewhere, showing intelligence and civilization.
High traffic a sign of a booming economy? Then the economy must’ve been booming for the past 10-12 years! (On a side note, constant traffic is a sign that transport infrastructure is broken)
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/310907/news/nation/late-pnoy-blames-traffic-reprimands-mmda-chairman
from the abnoy’s mouth.
reklamo
wtf?!? seriously???
Ang galing talaga ng logic ng magaling nating presidente.
So therefore let’s make philippine traffic worst on earth so the world will think we have the greatest economy!