Judging from the way the incoming Duterte administration is shaping its priorities, four issues appear to be at the forefront: Federalism, peace accord with National Democratic Front, crime and traffic.
Federalism will take a longer time to accomplish because this will require a constitutional change.
The peace agreement with the NDF can be done sooner because both sides seems to be in a hurry to sign a peace deal. If everything works out, Jose Ma. Sison can claim some success in his lifetime struggle to change Philippine society. The government can also claim victory for getting the NDF to the peace table.
The two other priority issues, crime and traffic, are two existential problems that affect the daily lives of all Filipinos. The nation by now is all too familiar with Mayor Duterte’s approach to crime fighting. It is to eliminate all suspected criminals. Already, about eight suspected drug dealers have been killed in separate incidents throughout the country in what the Police described as incidents following normal police procedures. The Dirty-Harry approach to crime fighting has always been controversial and if these eight incidents are indeed a sign of things to come, then the country will have to face the consequences of such a policy. Whether this practice which has been widely reported to have worked in Davao City will work also nationally is something that the nation will have to wait and see.
This approach is not new. This policy was also implemented in Thailand years ago under then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He was a police lieutenant colonel before becoming prime minister. In his anti-drug campaign, many suspects were simply killed. Critics were one in saying that the killings constituted extra-judicial executions and the humans right reputation of Thailand suffered greatly.
There is a good argument by some police and crime experts that killing suspected criminals is a move backward instead of forward. But this debate has been going on for years without any resolution. The temptation is great to take shortcuts in the legal process especially if the problem is severe. But the best way to combat syndicated crimes whether white collar or street crimes is still good police investigation.
I am afraid, however, that this position is being drowned by the severity of the country’s drug problem and the public clamor that something must be done about this problem as soon as possible. We, too, have to be careful in what we
wish for. Policies like parading suspects in the streets with placards on their chests and backs and offering monetary rewards for the killing or wounding of suspects will always have negative repercussions that might affect our standing as a civilized country in the international community.
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Traffic is another issue that the incoming Duterte administration would also like to solve as soon as possible.
Traffic gridlock is not only Metro Manila’s problem. It’s also an issue in fast-urbanizing cities like Baguio, Cebu, Davao and others. This is one of the problems that I am less optimistic that the Duterte administration can solve anytime soon.
In the National Capital Region, traffic will unfortunately get worse; I do not see it getting any better in the near or medium term. The Duterte administration cannot simply bark an order and expect everyone to follow that order. We have seen many so-called traffic and transportation experts discuss how the traffic problems in the NCR developed to its current situation. We have heard them give solutions to these problems.
Yet, in all these recommended solutions, I have not seen anyone suggest that in order to ease the traffic problems, we should go back to the basics of traffic. What are these? One is our driving culture. There is something terribly wrong with a society that considers it normal to have to put hundreds of traffic enforcers in one stretch of road like Edsa in order to enforce traffic discipline. We cannot put a traffic enforcer on every intersection or have a traffic enforcer for every bus or jeepney driver. Licensed drivers, whether professional or not, are supposed to know traffic rules and regulations. But as we all know, this is sadly not the case. The quality of our licensed drivers is poor.
Also, there are certain traffic realities that the public must accept as basic. First is that the roads are for vehicles. The road is a not place to put a vulcanizing shop, sell wares, use for private parking, bus or jeepney stations or a place to put up a house.
Second is that the sidewalk is for pedestrian use and not also a place for business or residence. If everybody can accept this, the road and sidewalk can be used more efficiently and improve traffic flow significantly. Bus, jeepney and tricycle operation must also be reviewed thoroughly because of the need to revise the way these vehicles are operated. Bus operation in this country is basically like jeepney operation. The only difference is the size of the bus but both stop anywhere and load anywhere.
Our country is one of the few countries remaining in the world that franchises urban transport to private individuals. That is why along Edsa, we have more than 500 different bus operators competing with the MRT, jeepneys and tricycles. Correcting these problems do not constitute long-term solutions and huge investments in government funds.
This may not solve all the problems but if implemented, it will go a long way in improving traffic conditions so that commuting in the NCR and other cities will at least be more bearable.