The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Jinky Jorgio
The controversial High Occupancy Vehicle policy, which was earlier suspended by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), was criticized today by militant groups Sanlakas and the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) for “imposing draconian measures on middle class car owners while turning a blind eye to the profiteering by banks and car manufacturers”, which according to both groups “essentially caused the congestion of EDSA”.
Nitpicking on car owners
Sanlakas secretary-general Atty. Aaron Pedrosa said, “Despite agreeing in principle that government regulation is key in solving major social problems that beset the people, including the worsening traffic situation, such measures should be fair and impartial. The MMDA should not nitpick on middle class car owners”.
He added, “In order to fully address the problem of traffic congestion along EDSA, the mayors of Metro Manila – who ordered the MMDA to implement their HOV policy – attempted a band-aid solution to a dilemma caused by decades of ill planning (or the lack of it) in the Metro Manila’s main artery. We suggest a wholistic approach that focuses on development of mass transportation, the quantity and quality of roads, the decongestion of Metro Manila, aside from the volume of private vehicles”.
EDSA traffic caused by unbridled profiteering
“It is easy to conclude that the congestion of EDSA was mainly caused by the steady increase in the volume of private cars.. The government since 1995 set into motion the liberalization of the entire car industry. It did not restrain not only local car production and sales but also the importation of automobiles”.
This according to Dominic Dilao, vice president of the socialist labor group BMP facilitated by a liberalized financial industry that offered low interest rates and flexible plans on auto loans”.
Citing a study by the Asian Banker, Dilao says that local commercial banks led by Metrobank have been selling automobiles like hotcakes since 2011. The forecast for auto loans in 2018 is set to amount to almost P700 billion.
“The Philippines together with Vietnam grew their auto lending significantly faster than other emerging markets over the same period, and this will continue in the next two years,” added Dilao, quoting the Asian Banker study.
“While the riding public was reeling from the sorry condition of our mass transport systems, car manufacturers and bankers made billions in profit by financing and selling cars to the middle class that were discouraged to commute because of unreliable and perilous trains, buses and jeepneys. Previous administrations including Duterte’s abandoned centralized planning and regulation as it adhered to its neoliberal economic doctrine of liberalization,” he added.
Multi-agency approach
Pedrosa clarified, “The solution to Metro traffic, a problem that is akin to a multi-headed hydra, should involve various government agencies, including the Bangko Sentral. It should learn from the experiences of huge cities such as Tokyo and Seoul, which prioritized mass transport systems – especially the railways – where people used the trains to navigate urban centers, leaving their cars in the suburbs”.
The activist-lawyer concluded, “If the mayors of Metro Manila and the MMDA persists on their narrow view that the solution to the horrendous traffic is to merely impose discipline on private car owners, then all their policies are not only doomed to fail but would also lead to government abuses and corruption. As bankers and car manufacturers gloat at the huge volume of private cars in the streets as it translates to billions that fill their pockets”.