OUT WITH THE TREES. Workers earth ball small trees on the center island as two inner lanes of Osmeña Highway in San Andres, Manila, are closed to traffic to give way to the start of the Skyway Stage 3 project. The multibillion-peso project will connect South Luzon Expressway and North Luzon Expressway. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang, inundated with appeals from motorists and commuters to address the looming monstrous traffic jams, is looking at schemes that will free up roads of obstructions such as parked vehicles, basketball courts and ambulant vendors during the duration of the construction of two major road projects in Metro Manila.
At a briefing, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma also called on private companies and government offices to devise a “flexitime” policy, a drastic but necessary solution that could decongest the metropolis’ thoroughfares during rush hours as employees would have different work schedules.
“To address the citizens’ concerns arising from the start of construction of the Skyway 3 project, the Naia (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Expressway project, and other projects in Metro Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have prepared traffic management plans, including rerouting and road widening,” Coloma said.
Carpooling, flexitime
Coloma said voluntary remedial measures such as community carpooling and company-initiated flexitime and home office arrangements for affected employees could contribute in easing traffic congestion.
“We renew our call that we share in the burden of sacrifice, and bear with the short-term inconvenience, so we can reap the benefits of faster travel and higher productivity,” he said.
Coloma renewed this call as residents of the capital felt what presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda described as “birth pangs” on Monday, when the Aquino administration—after three years of delay due to a snail-paced bidding process—belatedly started implementing 15 major infrastructure projects.
Traffic snarls are expected to be triggered by two major road projects beginning simultaneously on Monday—the Skyway project to connect South Luzon Expressway on Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City to North Luzon Expressway in Balintawak, Quezon City, and the construction of Naia Expressway Phase 2, which will connect the airport to the Entertainment City gambling hub.
Maybe people should wait for the monster traffic jams to materialize before taking drastic steps to change people’s work schedules, according to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte.
Belmonte on Tuesday said the predicted horrendous traffic gridlock resulting from two major road projects was yet to be felt, which was why he cautioned against immediately implementing a proposal to limit to four days the workweek of government employees.
“First of all, let’s try to see if there would really be great traffic difficulty. Everybody is talking doomsday now,” Belmonte told reporters when sought for comment on recent proposals to address traffic woes.
Four-day work, school week
The Palace was skeptical about the four-day workweek and shortened weekdays for classes.
“Those kinds of proposals were simply offered as options and suggestions, and were not intended to be presented as imperatives, precisely because there is a need for all the affected stakeholders to vet the idea, to review the possible ramifications and consequences,” Coloma said.
He said these proposals were not being dangled as “must-do” alternatives.
“To begin with, the school year is about to end, right? The regular school calendar will be ending in about a month. So we have time through the summer vacation to plan until the reopening of classes,” Coloma said.
“We would rather focus, for now, on the voluntary measures because these are more effective and involve what the concerned parties want to do,” he added.
Unnecessary
Some teachers also found “unnecessary” the MMDA suggestion to shorten classes to four days a week to ease traffic congestion.
Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) said most elementary and high school students were living near their schools anyway so they would not contribute to easing the traffic situation.
Compressing school days might only hamper learning, according to TDC chair Benjo Basas.
Two class shifts
Basas pointed out that shortening school days would further put pressure on schools that already have two class shifts in order to accommodate all students despite the limited classrooms.
He said “many schools in Metro Manila practice the two-shift policy” to accommodate enrollees.
“That would mean that for the morning session, some students would wake up very early for classes that would start at dawn, while the classes in the afternoon would end as late as 8 p.m.,” Basas said.
In Metro Manila, he added, the average school time in each shift was seven hours. A single-shift class usually starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m., he said.
Shorter workweek?
The labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) also questioned the proposed four-day workweek.
“The proposal to cut the workers’ volume on a particular day of a week, however, is based on the plain assumption that no work would mean less vehicles on the streets, which is wishful thinking when the city is ruled by private vehicles,” PM spokesperson Wilson Fortaleza said in a statement.
He said that based on available data, private vehicles outnumbered public utility vehicles in Metro Manila but public utility vehicles transport about 70 percent of commuters.
SMEs
“Another concern will be the impact of this proposal on small-scale and micro enterprises (SMEs), particularly those in the wholesale and retail industry, which comprise more than 90 percent of establishments and which employ the biggest number of workers in Metro Manila,” Fortaleza added.
The proposed four-day workweek could reduce traffic congestion if the workers are allowed to take a day off in specific areas at the same time, a lawyer suggested yesterday.
Romulo Macalintal proposed that one to three cities enforce a common no-work day for workers who will be opting for the four-day workweek.
“A four-day workweek may be experimented in Metro Manila for government offices wherein a one-day workday off shall be made on a staggered system or implemented alternatively in the various areas in Metro Manila.
No monster traffic jam
Despite expectations of a “monster traffic jam” once construction of the Skyway Stage 3 is under way, traffic flow has remained relatively smooth.
Advance works on the Skyway Stage 3, an elevated highway that will connect the South Luzon Expressway and the North Luzon Expressway, began on Monday night, with two southbound lanes on Osmeña Highway requiring closure.
But on Tuesday, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino noted that traffic flow on Osmeña Highway remained “OK” and “without problems.”
“My only worry was ambulances—that they will all pass on the northbound lanes going to hospitals, but there were no problems. The southbound lanes were OK as well,” Tolentino said.
He, however, acknowledged that alternate routes around the highway were experiencing the congested traffic. “The vehicles transferred there. That was expected,” he said. The MMDA chair assured obstructions on the inner streets would be cleared.
Ben Ola, a taxi driver, made the same observation when interviewed by the Inquirer. “The southbound route on Osmeña is really wide, even with two closed lanes. I had no problem there today. I passed there twice,” Ola said in Filipino.
But Ola noted that traffic was heavier in inner streets in Makati City, though he said it was an everyday occurrence.
Ola also said he was expecting the traffic jam on Osmeña Highway to start once trucks start coming out, mostly from the Manila port area. “Osmeña is really their road,” the driver said.—With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Jerome Aning and Tina G. Santos
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