Some public interest advocates are considering filing anti-graft raps against Francis Tolentino and his ex-underlings in the Office of the Ombudsman to make them account for those anomalies.
Although Tolentino currently comports himself as an independent candidate for the Senate, he courts the endorsement of partisan candidates for president. That’s political opportunism plain and simple because while Tolentino hopes to be endorsed by more than one presidential candidate, he can endorse only one of them.
Considering the mess in which he left the MMDA, Tolentino is bound to make a mess, too, in the Senate, if he gets himself elected. Candidates like Tolentino seem to justify why many voters end up electing movie actors, comedians, and professional boxers to public office.
With Tolentino on the campaign trail, Emerson Carlos is now the head of the MMDA. Tolentino himself recruited Carlos to the MMDA.
Instead of correcting the mistakes of his predecessor, Carlos is continuing Tolentino’s mess. Slow-moving vehicles and reckless motorcycle drivers still traverse the avenues wherever and however they please; the U-turn slots are still there; MMDA traffic enforcers are still invisible after dark, or during rainy hours; most MMDA vehicles are not registered with the LTO; pedicabs still roam main roads in violation of regulations; taxicabs still use major intersections as waiting stations; low-numbered license plates are still exempted from the number-coding regulation; and many traffic enforcers are still corrupt or abusive. It’s almost as if Tolentino were still running the MMDA.
During the recent Asia Pacific Economic Conference summit held in Pasay City, traffic along Edsa and other major streets was rerouted. Heavy, orange plastic barriers were installed on these roadways for the purpose of creating special lanes for the exclusive use of Apec officials. These barriers created inconvenience, but motorists were assured by the MMDA that they will be removed after the four-day Apec event.
To everybody’s horror, Carlos let the barriers remain along Edsa, and used those barriers to separate the bus lanes from the lanes used by private vehicles. The result—vehicles which need to enter Edsa from a sideroad are forced to travel on the bus lanes until such time they are able to chance upon a rare break in the long line of barriers. Consequently, the vehicle is needlessly diverted from its actual destination, and traffic accumulates in the bus lanes. One example can be seen at the segment of the northbound lane of Edsa between Buendia Avenue and the overpass leading to the Rockwell area behind Bel-Air Village. Motorists coming from the Bonifacio Global City area who need to go to Rockwell can no longer use the overpass. They will now have to drive all the way to the Guadalupe underpass some two kilometers away, and travel another two kilometers in the opposite direction, just to go to their destination.
The converse is also true. Vehicles which need to leave Edsa are compelled to exit only on those occasional breaks in the long line of barriers. Because these vehicles are now unable to exit at the precise part of Edsa where they need to, they are forced to take longer routes. That means keeping more vehicles on Edsa unnecessarily, and more vehicles along Edsa means more traffic along that avenue. It also means wastage of precious, expensive fuel.
The problem gets worse. Because these barriers are not reflectorized, they are almost impossible to see at night and during heavy rainfall. As such, they are road hazards that reaten the safety of motorists. There very existence is a violation of the Vienna Convention on road safety. The barriers at the southbound lane of Edsa near the overpass leading to Ortigas Avenue and Rosario, and those along the southbound lane of Edsa across Nepa-Q-Mart in Cubao, are accidents waiting to happen.
When those accidents finally happen, anti-graft raps should be filed also against Carlos, for causing undue injury to any party by reason of gross inexcusable negligence.
Another traffic mess Carlos has allowed to worsen is the daily gridlock along Shaw Boulevard in Pasig City, particularly that segment infront of the Capital Commons commercial arcade which used to be a rotunda. Since the 1960s, that rotunda somehow eased traffic in the area because vehicles were allowed to go around it without need for traffic lights. Last November, the rotunda was demolished. This widened the boulevard and traffic there became less congested. Two weeks ago, however, the MMDA installed a fence right where the rotunda used to be. Now, vehicles on the west-bound lane of Shaw Boulevard, which used to be able to go around the old rotunda, are required to go to the newly built intersection along Shaw Boulevard and Meralco Avenue, and make a u-turn there. Thanks to this scheme, the traffic problem there is horrid even outside rush hours.
Pasig residents were better off when the rotunda was still there. It was removed at public expense, and its removal made the traffic problem worse. Since the demolition has proved to be unnecessary, some government officials must have made a fortune in infrastructure demolition kickbacks.
Carlos is unable to attend to the current traffic mess because his mind is on the ongoing Metro Manila Film Festival—that annual event where money is made by the MMDA from the compulsory exhibition of local films.
Why a traffic management agency like the MMDA manages a film festival is a mystery. There is nothing in the charter of the MMDA which authorizes it to manage a film festival. Since government agencies may only act pursuant to a law, the absence of any legislation authorizing the MMDA to manage a film festival makes its stewardship of the ongoing film festival illegal.
In all likelihood, 2015 will mark the last time the MMDA will manage a film festival because some public interest advocates are contemplating on taking Carlos and his MMDA to court for dealing with public money without legal authority