There’s something wrong with this town!

May 17, 2007

You don't need to work in the government to know that there's something inherently wrong with how everything is being managed.  You need only to look around the streets to realise that definitely sometimes the government has its priorities mixed up. 

 

The City of Mandaluyong 

 

I'll take Mandaluyong City as an example since I live there.  Now, to be completely fair, I'm not saying that this city is completely fucked up, in fact I find that it is one of the more visible local government units and has a lot of well-intentioned projects - as far as the eye can see, that is.  You can check the local government website for more information on their projects.

 

Maagang pamasko sa mga taga-Mandaluyong (c/o www.Mandaluyong.gov.ph)

 

December last year, the Mandaluyong City government handed out buckets filled with assorted goods (as shown in the picture above) as early Christmas presents to some of its poorer citizens.  At PHP 350 per bucket multiplied by 60,000 which is the number of persons who received the goods, the project cost roughly PHP 21 million.  Certainly nothing beats the satisfaction of receiving something tangible and immediately consumable, however PHP 21 million can go a long long way if invested in either a housing, education or livelihood projects (or all three for that matter) for the thousands of informal settlers in the city including the exact same group of people who received the gifts. 

 

PHP 21 million is no loose change.  Even if you merely place this in a time-deposit with just 6% interest rate p.a., it would earn PHP 1.26 million a year.  I'm not sure whether this was properly budgeted at the beginning of the year or if it's one of those spur of the moment decisions, but if it had been invested properly at the beginning of the year instead of purchasing items outright just before christmas, the money that would have been made would have been enough to maybe refurbish the wet market in Addition Hills, send some kids to school or, if they really wanted something for Christmas, have a party where all 60,000 people could also have had their fair share.  One last thing I have a difficult time figuring out is how PHP 350 worth of goods could fit in a small bucket.  At 60,000, they could have ordered in bulk and received a very hefty discount.

 

Traffic and the city streets

 

The infrastructure in Mandaluyong has improved a lot in just the past year.  Major roads have been paved and construction is keeping up with the boom across Metro Manila.  However, those little things that tend to get overlooked, also tend to be the most annoying. 

 

The pictures below show the street right by the Pasig River just after crossing the Makati-Mandaluyong bridge.  There's this project which has been going on for, I think, a year or so.  It has been causing quite a lot of traffic especially during rush hour as this section is a major alternate route to and from Makati.  The construction is also right at the intersection of two streets and has forced the closure of one lane of traffic, cars now have to turn right into the other street and make a u-turn in order to cross to the other side. 

 

The construction has been mothballed and there have been no signs of its completion any time soon.  There used to be some signs indicating the length and budget of the project as well as posters of the City Mayor which have all disappeared, possibly blown away by last year's Typhoon Milenyo.

 

The construction

 

A jeepney making a u-turn

 

Obviously, it takes a lot of political will and commitment to complete even small-scale projects such as this.

 

Similarly, a "beautification" project was initiated by the city government focusing on polishing up the superficial facades of the streets and establisments in and around the Mandaluyong circle, which is the city's seat of government where the city hall, police station and Land Transportation Office are located. 

 

The islands of the streets connecting to the circle were revamped.

 

The "island"

 

The previsouly existing island was merely tiled and painted over. What's ironic about this is that, while the island was repaired, so-to-speak, the drainage covers lining this street that have basically rendered the inner lane unusable have been left untouched.  Any driver courageous enough to use this lane should expect a very jarring experience.

 

Huge drainage covers

 

As if that wasn't bad enough, the outer lane of this two-street is riddled with parked vehicles, pedestrians and pedicabs.

 

The pedicab is king of the road in Mandaluyong

 

No proper pedestrian crossings and, in the background, a truck during truck ban (this is in front of the LTO, City Hall and the police station) 

 

Pedestrians are walking on the street because tricycles have used the sidewalk for parking

 

Surely, it must be relatively easy and logical to understand, while I am not against making the city look pretty, that practical matters are more important.  An efficient city is really way better than a good-looking city, besides there's an intrinsic beauty in efficiency.

 

The sidewalk surrounding the circle was also repaired. The sidewalk itself was covered with the same colorful tiles used for the islands and the fencing was replaced and painted.

 

Note the art-deco-ish style

 

While all this "beautificatio" was happening, all around this government area, many many violations were being committed.  Jeepneys were stopping in the middle of the road blocking several lanes in the process and pedicabs were going against traffic.  They might not know it, but just because they're not motorised vehicles, they're not exempt from traffic rules and regulations.

 

L-R:  A couple pedicabs going against traffic, an owner-type jeep parked in the middle of the road, jeepneys loading and unloading without regard for traffic

 

But is it really any wonder when the people who work for the government themselve have no regard for the law? 

 

Government vehicles paked in the middle of the street causing a lot of traffic

More ironic still is that while all this money is being spent on things seemingly less important, just around the corner, literally just a few feet away from the city hall is one of the city's largest squatters' areas.

 

Local Law Enforcement

 

Law enforcement in the Philippines doesn't have the best of reputations.  In fact, it has a bad, nay, atrocious reputation.  Nobody trusts the police.  Mandaluyong is none the better.

 

A Mandaluyong police officer making "tambay"

 

They lack the training and motivation to actually do good and make a difference in society.  They lack objective and ambition.  It's funny that people fear police officers as much as they would criminals.  If you put a criminal together with a police officer less the uniform, there's really no telling the difference.  They come from the same social stock.

 

This guy actually causes more traffic and this isn't even an intersection, his only role is to assist u-turning tricycles and crossing pedestrians

 

The traffic he's caused

 

Is it because police officers are poorly paid and so they resort to traffic extortion and other such means to supplement their income? 

 

At the corner of Nueve de Pebrero and Shaw Boulevard is a "No Right Turn on Red Signal" sign which is being exploited by up to five motorised police and traffic enforcers.  They usually just stand there waiting for someone, who might not be too familiar with the area, to make the mistake of turning right on a red signal.  They often work in tandem with one group waiting right by the corner and another group about a hundred meters down the road.  So, if the first group doesn't make the catch, they can just radio it in to the second group. 

 

There's really nothing wrong with apprehending someone for making a violation but really all they do is sit there and wait the entire afternoon.  Don't they have anything better to do like, I don't know, maybe, serve and protect the citizenry, or possibly prevent crime?  You know, just maybe if they're not too busy.

 

The sign

 

Police officers guarding the corner, they seem to have caught a "criminal"!

 

The second line of defense seems to have caught a fish himself. 

Now, why in the world would you ask the driver to step out of his car and walk to your bike? Hmmm. Fish always smell fishy.

 

A police vehicle without plates parked in Nueve de Pebrero

 

Where's law enforcement when you need it?

 

Poverty 

 

No group of people could be more blatanly maligned with impunity than the poor.  They are all pawns in this society.  They are dis-empowered simply because they are poor and because they are dis-empowered, they are easily manipulated. 

 

We go back to the irony of the city's "beautification" project.  What it does is to serve as a consuelo de bobo to the public eye, to keep up visibility and to show that something concrete and tangible is being done by the government.  Really, a project that can be seen and appreciated by more people garners more points for the government in the public eye than a project that might offer more substance and effectiveness but cannot be outwardly monitored such as a scholarship program.  People cannot seen and thus not appreciate children being able to go to school everyday, learning and enlightenment cannot measured and observed, and it will take more effort for the government to "advertise" their achievements in this regard than it would to, say, build a monument in the middle of the road.  It would also, in theory since it's a one time expense, cost less money and yet these projects have a habit of either going over budget or of having just really big budgets.  If ever there were any observable effect such children graduating from school or being able to get good jobs, these are in the long-term and would not be directly attributable to the short-term incumbency of the government officials.  

 

Poverty here

 

Poverty there

 

Poverty everywhere

 

Poverty is direclty proportional to corruption in the government.  The more corrupt the government is, the more poverty is experienced by society.  The arithmetic is fairly simple.  For example, we take PHP 21 million and add it to whatever amount was used for this beautification project and that equals a lot of money.  A lot of money that can either go to a worthy public cause or to a very private pocket.  With all these projects, it begs the question, what is the net effect?  Have people's lives improved?  Has the quality of living increased?  How can you rationalise something like this? 

 

Politics 

 

It all boils down to politics, the politics of fair-weather friends and close family ties.  It's all about who has what and who wants whats that determines who gets what.

 

Politics… it's a family affair