Why city hall doesn't need to pay for a traffic czar
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September 20, 2004
READER Maynard Ilagan is obviously sick and tired of the traffic mess in Cagayan de Oro that he sent me an e-mail to ask what I think the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) should be doing to unclog the city's streets.
I won't claim to have the solution. I won't even pretend to be a traffic expert. But the years I spent commuting and driving motorcycles and automobiles somehow equipped me with the necessary qualifications to be an "expert" commuter and driver, not to mention that many years ago I passed the exams for drivers with flying colors. Mind you, I got my driver's license without the aid of a kodigo from an LTO examiner in exchange for a "tip".
Methinks the first thing RTA should do is get rid of lawyer and traffic czar Ramon Tabor. Not that ex-councilor Tabor is unqualified. I'm sure that like many of us, he is an expert driver, too. But I doubt if Tabor's driving and law expertise makes him a traffic expert.
Okay, okay--Tabor is a former councilor. But does that make him a traffic expert? If being a councilor makes one a traffic expert, why not make any of the present councilors the traffic czar instead? That way, city hall won't be wasting money to pay Tabor's consultancy fee.
Tabor may have served the Magtajas administration as councilor and concurrent boss of the now defunct Traffic Management and Enforcement Bureau (TMEB) but still, that doesn't make him a traffic expert. Tabor failed to bring any solution to the traffic mess during the Magtajas administration, what makes us think he has solutions today?
And even if he has solutions, city hall doesn't need a traffic consultant because Mayor Dongkoy Emano doesn't listen to sound advice anyway. Since when did Emano listen?
One of the first things Tabor did when Emano appointed him as traffic czar was to ask city hall to assign to the RTA a handful of local government employees who worked under him in the TMEB. The ex-TMEB guys were thrown to other city hall offices, some to outlying barangays, by the Emano administration because they were identified as Magtajas loyalists. Emano, according to my source, thumbed down Tabor's request.
Tabor isn't really calling the shots in the RTA. He is powerless because truth is, Emano remains as Cagayan de Oro's traffic czar.
And even if Emano listens to Tabor, how would that change the traffic situation in Cagayan de Oro? The last time I checked, the traffic problem in Cagayan de Oro is still monstrous.
One report quoted RTA director Ulysses Gere as blaming Cagayan de Oro's past planners for today's traffic mess. What he meant was Cagayan de Oro's road network is defective and RTA won't be able to do anything about the traffic problem except to strictly enforce traffic laws in hopes of making driving in Cagayan de Oro a little less inconvenient.
Poor road network planning is why the Maharlika Bridge has become a bottleneck, says Gere. The other bridge in Carmen is another major bottleneck, I'm sure.
Sadly, Cagayan de Oro motorists can't see the light at the end of the tunnel because the Emano administration proved to be no better than the past planners of the city.
So the Maharlika and Carmen bridges are bottlenecks. That's a given.
What did Emano do? He built a bridge in the boondocks of Indahag where traffic congestion is non-existent. You call that good planning?
Ask any traffic expert and you would be told that good traffic management is a result of clear thinking. Unfortunately for Cagayanons, the mayor seems to be having a hard time thinking clearly. Mention RTA and he would think politics.
Given all these problems, Gere says the only thing RTA can do for now is to strictly enforce traffic laws. Okay, do it. But does city hall need a consultant to make the RTA do that?
A little common sense, Mr. Mayor, please.
Pastilan.
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