Pass the Fare Money

It goes without saying that traffic in that hellhole, Manila is downright intolerable. Congress plans to grant the President "emergency powers" to solve what is now considered a national crisis. Right, because Manila's problems are also problems for the rest of us backwoods yokels. 

Autocalypse

In fairness, the traffic situation in Cebu is nearing Manila levels of awful too.

When one uses the term "emergency powers", what comes to mind is usually the image of troops deploying, collapsing buildings, flash floods, typhoons, epidemics etc. It really says a lot that the traffic situation is so horrible that it's considered on the level of a natural calamity, as if people are starving in their cars. Oh, but this is a man-made disaster, don't you forget that. So now Congress wants to undo years of poor planning and/or outright neglect and wants Duterte to cut through the bureaucracy and get things done.

While Congress probably has the ability to grant the President this power, as some legal smart ass can probably look up/cook up one,  there are some genuine concerns. What powers exactly are they giving the President? For how long? How long is this "emergency" going to be and when will it be considered over? Does it cover the entire Philippines or just that cesspit, Manila? What other agencies will be involved, if any? What is the system of accountability in case of abuses? Have you ever noticed that news articles covering this issue are terribly vague about everything?

Unless armed rebels are actually blocking the public roads, it's hard to imagine what the people are honestly expecting the President to do. Has it ever happened in the past that a President was given emergency powers to solve what is basically a municipal issue?

Ah, there it is. Enough questions. It's time to analyze.

Here's a thought: giving emergency powers to the president will not allow something to be done which cannot already be done now without having to give president emergency powers. Really, giving the president these powers will not add anything new to the mix. All it does is pass the buck from the people who are supposed to be in charge of the problem to the president and THAT'S THE POINT of this whole exercise; to pass the buck.

It's not about the traffic.

Nobody wants to admit this but enacting genuine solutions to the traffic problem is going to be painful. For example; the government wants to widen the roads or build a new highway. In a metropolis like Manila, that will require exercising eminent domain which means paying just compensation. You're gonna have to pay the landowners and in some parts of Manila, you might as well be donating your organs too. If the government wants to expand the MRT network, the government is gonna have to spend a lot of money too and government officials (if they're really serious about solving the problem) will be forced to curb their tendency for corruption. Even reclaiming land occupied by squatters to make room for new infrastructure, will be costly and not just in monetary terms if you know what that means. To add to all of this, Metro Manila is composed of many cities so that means the local politicians will have to -ugh- put aside their politicking and work together! L'horreur!

So really, the geniuses in charge don't want to have to deal with this. Decades this problem has simmered and the people and institutions that were supposed to be on top of this just wet the bed. Whether it's a lack of political will, resources or just plain laziness, they don't want to have to get their act together and would rather just let the president tell them what to do. Besides, the president is still popular and can absorb the negative repercussions of the hard decisions that will have to be made. If that doesn't work, he can put on the tough guy act and ram whatever he wants done through. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've ever wondered what's so appealing about a dictatorship, here you go. 

Isn't it ironic that in a time when people are supposedly clamoring for "federalism", they're begging for a centralized response to a problem the local governments are too impotent to fix? Pathetic.

So if anyone talks about the president needing emergency powers to solve the traffic problems, know that that person is an idiot unwittingly engaging in the government's mind games. The talk of emergency powers serves a second purpose. Instead of asking about how we're going to fix the problem, the question now is when are we giving the president emergency powers. Excuse me, powers to do what, again? Oh, see? It's the president now who has to tell us the how of the matter. Not only are they passing the problem to him but also the responsibility to come up with solutions. In the end, the government is still stalling even now!

I want off this ride.