Maybe it’s just road rage from all the traffic that I’ve been going through lately, whether driving my (borrowed) car, riding a cab, or being a bus passenger myself, but I have always wondered: why the hell do we wonder why there’s so much traffic in EDSA, when an average of 40% of the road cannot be used by 80% of the vehicles?
You know what I’m talking about; it’s the dreaded yellow lanes in EDSA, wherein buses and jeepneys are free to ply in and out of, but once private vehicles and, more recently, taxi cabs, enter the MMDA boys come swooping down on you like pet vultures of The Great Pink BF.
Of course, nobody really questions the law because, hell, private vehicle owners? They’re rich! If they can afford a car, they should be able to afford a ticket from the MMDA! Unlike those poor bus drivers who can swerve in and out of them yellow lanes because — hey, it’s their job — and they have every right to cut into your lane because they’re "less fortunate" than you with your spanking brand new Chery QQ.
So, let’s review the kinds of laws Filipinos have written against the "more fortunate" because it’s just "rightful" for them and they give just advantage to the "less fortunate":
Yellow Lanes
Seriously, it’s impossible to find what the whole point of this godforsaken law, and the way the MMDA boys have twisted it the other way around — theoretically private vehicles should be allowed in the yellow lanes because, heaven forbid, the sidewalks and establishments are deep inside them! Why private vehicles are treated like UN forces crossing the 38th parallel towards Pyongyang, I still don’t understand.
Never mind if almost half of EDSA is unusable — creating enormous traffic jams on an already overloaded highway — for which the apparent remedy is U-turn slots and pink urinals. It ensures that those who cannot afford their own cars and the "less fortunate" bus and jeepney drivers ferrying them have a free hand in doing whatever they want as long as they’re in these beautiful golden stretches.
Taxes on books and electronics
Why is everyone making a hoot against this "great book blockade" thing? It’s meant to keep you rich kids from getting your unnecessarily expensive copies of Twilight! Save that for the beggar outside your campus gate instead!
And if you think this is the first time the government did it… na ah ah. Seriously, did you ever wonder why those laptops, digital cameras, cellphones, and other uber-gadgets are just oh so cheap in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan? It’s because the Philippines places high taxes on these dreaded devices! Dreaded, because everyone knows that only the uber rich can buy uber gadgets and henceforth they must be taxed! Never mind if everyone needs a cellphone these days, never mind if laptop computers actually empower the downtrodden by allowing access to the internet and therefore free flowing information, and never mind if digital cameras allow people to get rid of film cameras which, with the hazardous chemical content of both the manufacture of film and processing and development, leads to various forms of pollution. Never mind, never mind.
The Lina Law
The mother of all "social justice" laws, the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279) [PDF] colloquially called the Lina Law "lays down the groundwork for a comprehensive and continuing urban development and housing program" and "addresses the right to housing of the homeless and underprivileged Filipino people." Quite a noble law, seeking to allow the "less fortunate" a level playing field at finding homes.
Of course, a lot of unscrupulous-though-less-fortunate people also use it to steal land; while the dramatized cinematic representation is of some cruel Doña riding a Mercedes ordering goons to beat the crap out of poor laborers arms linked with wives and kids tearfully crying while the bulldozer comes in, many times hardworking OFWs, scrimping on meals to save for their dream house, come home with the lots they bought in the last seafaring-tour-of-duty occupied by gin-drinking merry men. These "less fortunate" persons then brandish the Lina Law being on their side, drawing the "rich" OFW’s savings into attorney’s fees in a court battle to get the land he actually really owns.
Who should benefit from our laws?
While there are laws that benefit the downtrodden that are commendable and praiseworthy, the cliche must once again be evoked: the road to hell is paved, gold plated, and vacuum sealed fresh with good intentions. Any law that tips the balance from one sector of society to the other must have easy-to-invoke stop gaps that disallow the law to be abused by the benefiting sector, or render them moot when the needs addressed by the law have become irrelevant.
Only when the law benefits everyone, not just the downtrodden, can a society be really called just and equal.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The traffic laws and rules in trhe Philippines are never followed.
It is each man for himself on the highway. The Traffic Police looks
on the other way.
Filipinos have not discipline. This is why our country is this way.
Our leader have not discipline themselves. It is just follow the
leaders.
Police most of the time are hidden, waiting for you to violate traffic rules, especially when they are hungry, not out there to really implement rules. Each man for himself is exercising human rights. I remember a politician once laughed at Singapore as a city of too many “fine”. We are accustomed to chaos, the freedom to do any thing we want, which we call it democracy. Barangay captain blocked the street just to celebrate his birthday, males just urinate anywhere, a tourist attraction only found in the Philippines). When penalty is imposed, people complain it is anti-poor suppression. Just like in the case of jeepney drivers. They are the king of the road, loading and unloading anywhere they like, even in the middle of the street, which has turned out to be another “Only In the Philippines” tourist attraction. They have become a political force whose arrogance politicians choose to ignore.
They already have a way on how to make money with those buses: the pick up area.
For example, in sm makati southbound:They allow the one in front to take his dear sweet time in waiting for passengers so that the rest can have the equal opportunity in getting passengers and off course they allow the conductors to go down bringing with them the terminal fee.
another thing to note is even if the bus driver has x number of accidents all he has to do is attend seminars and that is it.point being how can it be that easy its like getting away with murder?
so its still a level playing field when it comes to paying fees.
The lina law is anti land owner.
If it is not intended to be that way,it ended up being such.
I. Transport
a. Buses, Jeep, Taxi drivers in the Philippines, particularly in Metro Manila are not on salary. They’re on commission. the more they serve, the more they take home. that’s why they fight tooth and nail for every passenger. They don’t care about any stupid yellow lane.
b. Operators of Buses, Jeep, and taxi don’t want to put these people on salary because, they’re afraid these people will just slack off.
c. how many of those buses in EDSA are legitimate? How many buses are part of legitimate fleets, but are in fact, illegal?
d. why isn’t the MRT enough to service everyone passing through EDSA?
II. #bookblockade
1. The DOF’s policy is in VIOLATION of International law. The Philippines *is* a signatory to this UN Treaty. if you can’t trust a country to abide by something it has agreed to, what happens the next time we’re asked to sign something? What does that say about the next time others come to deal with individual Filipinos? Are individual Filipinos better than their government— which you can’t trust?
2. I’m not against government applying the proper tax rate on booksellers. Nor am I against government applying VAT on books. That’s the law right? I’m against this whole taxation of books because it sends the wrong message. We’re making it harder for people to get their hands on books. Rich people can buy a kindle and an E-Book will never have to pass through customs.
What happens to that poor kid in Mindanao? How can people encourage him to go beyond his horizons? How can he imagine a better world? What if that poor kid, after reading harry potter comes up with a great book idea that involves a kapre kid?
For the meanwhile and for many more years into the future, Baguio-public schools or Mindanao-public schools get their Harry Potter or Beatrix Potter books via donations from Florida- or North-Carolina-based groups.
Ang lungkot naman nito.
To have a postive note.
MV doulous.
It usually visits the country, it will just take one fellow with the initiative to buy as much books as he or she can and share it to as many as he or she can.
They are tax free.
Our kababayans from the US, don’t tell me walang may “good intention” sa kanila para magshare ng maraming libro sa maraming tao.
Yung lumilibot sa kalye na me kariton at sabay nagtuturo sa mga dinananan nya, Kaya lang rainy season na.
Good thing : Not every one is a bastard.
Yung mga book buyer dito di naman lahat yun hinihintay amagin at anayin yung mga libro nila syempre meron din dun na pinamimigay na lang.
So we may have a flawed system, but there are alternatives.
Karl,
We don’t really need alternatives because the point really is that there is already a LAW. an international law. It is a signed treaty and the fraking country is violating it!
Why are there people who can go tooth and nail over MARTIN NIEVERA on his BAD singing and call it breaking the LAW but when it comes to THIS international agreement, too few people fraking care?
All we need to do is GO BACK to FOLLOWING the LAW.
Again, I’m all for government taxing booksellers and consumers via VAT. that’s fine, right? but on the matter of IMPORTING books— that goes through our customs, we have to follow our agreement.
And we shouldn’t rollover and play dead.
III. Lina Law
I’m not sure when it was. I think it was a few years after the Lina Law was enacted when my parents sold a piece of property in Ortigas. Neither they nor I had ever set foot in said property but my mother made a big deal of selling it at the earliest opportunity and selling it without any care at all. Her reason was she didn’t want to have to deal with squatters in the property if it ever came to that.
there are professional squatters. a lot of these poor people are cunning and crafty and filled with street smarts. Their cunning and craftiness can outmatch those in the palace. I guess they need to be— to survive.
And yes, their line of being “victims” and poor often can irk. Rich or poor, people are bastards.
And these shantytowns as much as they represent the state of the economy, our politicians also take advantage of them: cannon fodder during elections. They use each other, don’t they?
IV. Laws in the Philippines
Our laws are bent to the will of those who can pay. We’ve so many laws that even old and ancient ones are pulled out of mothballs and used as weapon. They’re used to oppress others. It doesn’t matter if it is Rich against poor. Poor against rich. Poor against poor. Rich against rich.
If you put the Philippines in the context of the Wild West. It is a savage, wild land. Often it is a land that can’t make up its mind. Is it communist with the language of its social justice? Is it a democracy, where everyone speaks but hardly anything substantial comes out; just sound and fury, signifying nothing. Is it an aristocracy where royalty and royal blood continue to subjugate these islands? My guess is that it is all of it.
After leadership, civility is this country’s next problem.
Wala akong masabi dito,
except…. define civility.
No, ethics and morality. A ot of civil people are real bastards. come one cocoy, some of them will be very civil in your face then after a few weeks patay kana.
“They already have a way on how to make money with those buses: the pick up area.”
binasa ko ulit,malabo.
I meant traffic enforcers when I said “they”
imho, we need to pay our traffic enforcers higher wages because the compensation structure will attract better candidates. having higher wages also means they are subject to a citizens oversight committee ( feel free to add composition of committee) that can fire them for unethical behavior. reward good behavior and penalize unacceptable behavior.
also, having higher wages could lessen the incidence of moonlighting in the pick up area.
with traffic enforcers at peak performance, there has to be a positive effect on the flow of traffic, leading to more effective use of time, and increasing national productivity.
Thanks Bong,
The recent hearings I hear about salary increases and the salary standardiation law are not encouraging.
because puro hypothetical at worst case scenarios, salary standardization law may umaangal na dapat daw di kasali presidente dun pa lang matagal na ubusan ng laway na.
Salary increase: I heard one say it is freeze hiring in the government offices. I said to myself gosh,wala bang foresight ito sa debate pa lang pang short term na.
With that said,point well taken.
Every evidence cited above is anecdotal. Are you sure they don’t come from your prejudices?
Stop pointing a finger on the lower classes. They are coming in the wake of the bigger land thieves. Pagayagaya lang sa mga mayayaman, in other words. If we are a free country at all then we are merely free to mimic what other people are doing. Government has been spoiling the privileged for decades and you blame the poor if they think they deserve to be spoiled too at the point where their survival needs it?
Brian,
if your asking people if they base what they write from their prejudices, it can back fire.
edit:if you ask people instead of if your asking.
sorry.
tulog na nga tayo.
i get where you’re coming from, but i think you’re venting your frustrations at the wrong people and toward the wrong end.
consider traffic. there may be more private vehicles but there are infinitely more citizens relying on public transportation than who use private vehicles. if you were to graph class AB and C D and E usage of say, Edsa, obviously there are many more C and D using Edsa than A or B, but person-by-person, AB probably uses more space -roadwidth, kilometers of highway- than CD with E running across, etc. Your middle class person, or upper class one, driving a sedan, transporting himself from a to b, occupies nearly as much space as a jeep carrying a dozen people; two cars equals the space used by a small bus with thirty people. but the very design of the whole thoroughfare has the sedan rider in mind, and the bus and jeepney riding passenger barely at all; we are more liable to find traffic, have cops assisting us by means of keeping the flow going, than our employees encounter as they go from trycicle to jeep to MRT to bus etc -the sight of people spilling over into Edsa at the end of the day, and worse, huddled at the corner of Ayala and Edsa, are as much due to the sidewalks having been removed to facilitate sedans, when the passage of sedans ought to be limited or the frontage of commercial areas expropriated to provide humane sidwalks and waiting areas. these are just some insights from that mayor of bogota colombia, who has some nifty ideas and there’s that blog philippines a hundred years hence which scientifically analyzes these problems.
A rational society would impose much more draconian limits on private car owners until additional infrastructure can be put in place. in london bringing cars into the city center is prohibitively taxed; same for singapore; there are ways to encourage carpooling and school busing. but the operative word here, is rational.
we have socialist aspirations undertaken with private sector methods under the whims and caprices of officialdom in the thrall of syndicates. we want public transport but it’s in the hands of private owners, from trycicles to jeeps to buses, all of which run by commission, or boundaries, which means it would be suicidal for them to limit their routes or submit to timetables, much less coor5dinate with other transport systems theyre meant to feed. the trycle toda and jeepney driver’s PISTON finds safety in numbers in demanding artifically low prices for fuel, but no government compulsion or assistance is getting fuel-efficient vehicles. buses are pure market capitalism in all its brutal glory, etracting maximum efficiency from underpaid staff and running their vehicles into the ground,m but bringing the public from point A to B anyway.
you could conceivably ban buses from the middle of edsa, with buses only taking over at the terminals -=but you would need many more trains and they aren’t forthcoming.
As for the other things, they’re variations on the blessings of democracy, which is, that captive vote farms are the secret for the entrenched success of many politicians in many urban centers. they are the equivalent of the hacienda workers being taught whom to vote for. they also have a high turnover and as you noted, there are now dynasties of squatter landlords, in league with dynasties of soldiers, dynasties of politicians, dynasties of doctors, entertained by dynasties of actors, all proud of the dynasties of engineers, dentists, teachers, lawyers, mechanics they know.
exactly.
As for the other things, they’re variations on the blessings of democracy, which is, that captive vote farms are the secret for the entrenched success of many politicians in many urban centers. they are the equivalent of the hacienda workers being taught whom to vote for. they also have a high turnover and as you noted, there are now dynasties of squatter landlords, in league with dynasties of soldiers, dynasties of politicians, dynasties of doctors, entertained by dynasties of actors, all proud of the dynasties of engineers, dentists, teachers, lawyers, mechanics they know.
I agree. For instance, there’s one who already has 40,000 votes if the election were to start tomorrow.
The questions are:
1 – How can this be turned around?
2 – Is it even worth turning this block around?
3 – If this block is a constant, a given – then the next question would be how can a similar number be mobilized to provide a balance – a level playing field?
I’ve been hearing of this Lina law from relatives. They hate it, too. I challenge any body to imagine a scenario that can both make squatters and land owners happy, no rights violated (let’s make that the most basic human rights) and economy improves as a result.
ito talagang hypothetical
stop corruption in the bidding and procurement system.
With that fast track all the stalled projects for mass transportation.
Have the decades old land use bill be finalized and updated to the present scenario.
A land use law would be a catch all solution and a guideline to the often revised master plans of too many cooks.
Neda has a masterplan hidden in its closets.
MMDA has a masterplan for an expansion of metro manila.
Neda has a masterplan hidden in its closets.
Peza has a masterplan for its ecozones
Da has a masterplan for its food terminals.
PPa for its ports
DAR… forget it.
(The problem is the master often poohpoohs the plan for short term goals.)
Any masterplan done by a central agency has difficulty of being implemented because of non coordination between the central agency and its lgu counterpart.
or can also be stated pag ayaw ni gov di pwede yang proposal mo.
Like agriculture and food security for instance, the da secretary has no say,it is the mayor or the governor who controls the devolved counterpart.
Solution:scrap the local government code.
after all the road detours back to the mainroad:
When there is mass transportation no matter how far the relocation site to their school,place of work the now landed has less problems to face.
But there is more:
the lina law is decriminalization of squatters and ensuring of proper relocation.
I only discussed the relocation i think that is the real problem,not whether to criminalize or decriminalize squatting.
we haven’t tackled the election factor.
sorry low bat na ako.
Given his statements above, one wonders where the sentiments of MLQ3 lie with regard to the forces favoring equal outcome or income versus those favoring equal opportunity. And, would he consider the laws mentioned by the blogpost forms of “affirmative action” legislation, though intended to favor the majority rather than minorities?
Though I would believe that say, providing carpooling (HOV) lanes for both private and public transport or equal compliance of traffic regulations, would primarily address not the social or economic status of travelers, but rather efficiencies in moving traffic.
Amen. Korak.
The reason why there aren’t any trains forthcoming is that they’re being operated with negative, suicidal, profits, taken up by government. What’s the real operating cost of the MRT and LRT? 70 pesos per person from Taft to North EDSA? And this was in 2001.
Of course if the MRT were to charge that more people will opt to take the bus (20 pesos for the same route) and thus the chicken-and-egg problem goes about its own way.
As for highway design, agreed that it was designed with the sedan in mind. I have always played mind experiments with how to design the EDSA Southbound Mantrade bus stop, the problem being that buses need to swerve 3 lanes to get to the correct lane to head towards Pasay Rotonda, in a distance of less than 100 meters. Growing up going through that thoroughfare it never occured to me as a problem, but ever since the MRT was put in place (reducing the passable lanes in the Magallanes interchange) it has become a mind-boggler to me.
I guess I’m just wishing out loud that Manila had a more mature and sane public transport system. The yellow lane issues would then be moot.
re:magallenes bus stop (southbound)
Yeah.
I happened to witness a bus which just barely missed the cab i was in,but not the one on our left.
The bus was pasay bound and he swerved from the bus stop and hit the pasay bound private vehicle,buti na lang mabagal mag drive yung taxing sinasakyan ko at gumagana ang preno.Ayoko ko nang isipin kung ano ang nagyari sa nabangga nya.
Renato Pacifico Star Rating
Readability *****
Directness *****
Entertainment Quality: Zero
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CONGRATULATIONS TO JON LIMJAP! Lean and mean blogpost. Easy to understand. Direct to the point. literary fat & calories, trimmed. Informative and social impact, 5 Stars
- handheld electronic entertainment devices should be customized at 500%. If they can afford it, they are wealthy.
- Import duties on educational material should be socialized heavyly against the wealthy.
- Public Transport should be cooperativized.
- Public Transport drivers should have flat pay, so they don’t hang-around and chill in front of malls to troll for passengers blocking others behind
- Vertical expansion of affordable mixed-use housing unit with socialized rent
- make it difficult for private vehicles to ply major streets like New York, Paris, London, San Francisco, Milan, Rome, Venice, etc. etc. etc.
- make private vehicles pay congestion tax. If they can afford cars they can afford to pay congestion taxes
- handheld electronic entertainment devices should be customized at 500%. If they can afford it, they are wealthy.
need to factor in the possibility of:
1. the country of origin complaining against high tariff barriers with the WTO.
2. retaliation from country of origin – removal of Preferred Trading Partner Status; reduction of trade quotas; tax of 500% on imports from Philippines
- make private vehicles pay congestion tax. If they can afford cars they can afford to pay congestion taxes
- add parking meters in heavily congested streets that allow parking. charge a high rate – this creates revenues for the city, makes people think twice before taking their cars out, and reduces greenhouse emissions.
- provide secure Park and Ride areas. Provide fiscal and non-fiscal investment incentives for investments in said areas. Drivers from the suburbs can park their cars in the area, pay a fee, take the mass transit for their offices. After work, they take the mass transit to the Park and Ride area, get into their car, and head home.
- Provide fiscal and non-fiscal investment incentives for investments in mass transit fleets that use affordable “green” fuel.
Exporting civilized countries is not dependent on handheld electronic entertainment. It’s a drop in their bucket but luxury to us homeland Filipinos. If they retaliate on these, we retaliate with “where’s your social conscience your company says you uphold?” propaganda.
I agree with the parking meters! Why no one from foreign-educated-ivy-school-graduate thought of this? They experienced that abroad. They know how much foreign cities are making money out of it!
It’s POLITICS!
Those car-owners gets the run of the parking while Public transport gets just two car lengths where they can pick-up passengers.
Very good ideas there RP. You’re the second best genius in FV after Benigs.
Renato Pacifico Star Rating
Poginess of blogger ************
Jon Limjap is handsome…. Aaaaaay nakuuuuu!!!!
Pwede tekstan kita, Jon?
Hindi pwede fafa, magagalit si misis ;)
LOL
Allow me to put it this way.
Okay, Jon, let’s say you are a ‘trouble maker’. When you drive your car (as private vehicle borrower), you find trouble. When you ride a taxi, you find trouble. When you ride the bus (you still find trouble). And then you blame the LAW, BIG BAD LAW.
The law has nothing to do with your personal troubles. The law, to be precise, does nothing else but promote social justice. What is personal justice is certainly not social. And you mention BF, thinking of The Great Pink BF as herding a flock of “vultures”.
Oh jon, you’re the trouble maker. You call the MMDAs vultures swooping down on you? Let’s tell this like it is – “sira ulo” mo jon.
As to the other laws you mentioned which again, however unstudiedly, you quickly dismiss as equally unjust – taxes on books, the lina law – well, it seems that nourishment is really something external. Thank the guys who more than willingly connected the dots. See those yellow lines?
No offense intended.
Primer, there is no social justice in our vehicle-riht-of-way. Majority of our brown brothers ride busses and yet, the private vehicles get the majority of the streets for parking.
where is equity in social justice? Either they ride public transport or park their private vehicle in their garage.
Or they pay for the privilege of inconveniencing the public, pay a parking fee.
Of course I *am* the trouble maker. I should be, because I’m not in poverty. The poor never create trouble!
Threre is no systemic thinking that underpins conception and implementation of many of our laws and ordinances. They are all piecemeal, pwede-na-yan, and bahala-na approached “solutions” for ill-understood problems.
While I was driving from Mt Dora to Eustis, I came across the freeway in Apopka.
I observed that the vicinity was sparsely populated. My friend commented that the planners were anticipating the demand coming in the next 50 years!
Kung sa pinas yan, the roads are widened when the roads are already congested, and real estate prices for road right of way have skyrocketed.
so jon, whats ur stand about the book blockade? yes or no?
Of course I don’t want it. Good books are expensive and hard to come by, as is. And I still prefer dead tree paper over PDFs, even if I have the option for the latter for many of the books I read.
Jon:
early adopters already have E-book reading devices.
looks like a book, feels like a tablet PC, download the content into your device – and read like a book.
am waiting for the price to taper down, then i’ll get one when the R&D cost of the first model has been recovered.
OK. coz from the post, it sounds like you were at least ambivalent… at most, you think that books only benefit the wealthy… that would be a strange position to take, to say d least…
GabbyD,
Sarcasm is a complex beast, I tell ya ;)
@jon
huh? now i’m confused. you were being sarcastic? that means you were sarcastic/ironic for the whole blog post?
is this true? didn’t u mean all the other stuff you said?
GabbyD,
Let’s just put it at this: the only really sober statements above are in the last part.
All the rest are, well, rambling and ranting, at the least. ;)
Renato,
We have to move backwards to see why?
The people in government run corporate RP like a business. And they are at it, no matter the consequences.
We have more private vehicles than should have been prescribed, more buses than should have been necessary, more taxis and jeepneys, not to include those tricycles and well yes, the padyaks.
You can connect the dots – line up all the jeepneys – from Cubao EDSA all the way to Intramuros, Manila – you might end up having a lot more jeepneys left to reach Cavite along coastal. You know what I mean?
The people in government run corporate RP like a business. And they are at it, no matter the consequences.
And they are running it in a win/loss manner. Dapat win/win.
Speaking of parking fees, how in Heaven’s name, can a city government even have to collect parking fees on the use of side roads in front and around its premises?
If that is not extortion, I sure don’t know what is.
Primer:
It’s not called extortion in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Berlin – it’s called parking fee.
Davao has it too. Provides jobs, generates revenue which funds government services like 911 in partnership with the Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Company.
And traffic is more orderly due to the rational use of public property.
Well,then the ayes have it. Make sure the P20 per vehicle does not go to the pockets of deputized collectors who are not in the payroll of the city government, either.
By the way, the City Hall is just another lot owner in that stretch of the road lined by business establishments. If the businesses don’t charge parking fees, why should the City Hall do it?
who owns the road and sidewalk? the city owns it.
No city owns no public road – it being one of many “publics”.
Besides, in that city, sidewalks are owned by the sidewalk vendors in what is clear case of underground economy. They ain’t no permits to contribute revenues to the government.
They sure sell “hawkers’ tickets” for only P20 but that is only from 8 to 5 pm when business is boiling hot 5 pm till midnight.
You know, as bong said it, our cities are no washington dcs.
Maybe the city can provide an alternative location for vendors?
Also consider this approach – http://www.riversideartsmarket.com/FAQs.html#foodart – this is in Northeast FL.
The point in all these discussions is this.
Whatever it is that BF now does, is a work in “damage control”. In other words, he can no longer put the horse before the cart – Makati and neighboring cities as we now see them – are already standing on the ground and perhaps in the period of their births, there is no such thing as ‘urban planning’.
That ought to have made things very difficult for the best of ‘industrial designers’ but he can do it, he does it – and people like what they are having. (Jon, are you “finding Nemo?”)
Mahirap talaga, mahirap and it is not my job to explain, sometimes.
The irony is that cities like Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rome, ad infinitum, were also cities established long before urban planning was invented. They have their share of troubles, sure, but they’re better.
Was it just a matter of them having more money than we do?
Here in Sydney, you cannot perform any kind of commercial operation (whether for profit or non-profit) without paying some kind of fee to the city government. Even distributing leaflets and having a photo session for your wedding on city property attracts a council fee.
The roads and sidewalks are so clean that some people are able to go around the city barefoot without having to fear stepping on someone’s spit or run-off from all the pissing on public walls. If you are walking a dog you need to be properly equipped to pick up its crap from the sidewalk.
In return, you get a really pleasant city that people are willing to PAY to do business in.
Manila is the capital city, and like every primary city all over the world is a reflection of its society.
I think people will pay— if they know that what they’re paying for is worth it.
My point exactly, Cocoy.
Sydney?!? fair dinkum pleasant?!?! LOL!!!!!! It’s Brissy mate!Well in all cities of Oz, you can only walk a dog if it is properly leashed.I also propose that any politician who has ads before, during or after an election should be taxed at least 80% of the cost of the political ad.
i love it.. everytime B0 mentions australia… blackshama transforms into an aussie!
Yeah. I cringe everytime.
Putting a punitive tax on the bad guys usually also creates punitive taxes and disincentives for good guys to the point that the good guys just quit and only the bad guys remain.
a more intelligent way to tax is “….progressive” — 0%-tax on the first P100,000, 5%-tax on P100K to P500K, 8% up to P5Million, and 15% above P5M.
And might as well tax ads by universities, NGO’s, churches, temples, mosques, buddhists and pro-atheism groups ( :grin: )
I regret not having one summer in Australia, Melbourne in particular with my old mom. The NSO documents for my mother just made it anticlimactic
Of course, someday I’ll go there my sister works as a specialist (doctor) and my brother in law, a bank manager.
So benigno, you’d rather borrow a city and pay your ‘lease’ than own one? Just kidding.
amadeo, an equal outcome is not an outcome at all, it is the dictatorship of the proletariat. i guess what i’m more interested in is an equality of opportunities, with a guaranteed minimum quality of life regardless of desire/ability to compete.
with regards to the above, an additional point to raise is that we have a regime of entitlements versus a society genuinely capable of progressive harmony. In this sense, the lengthy but concise definition of Jose P. Laurel of what Social Justice is, is useful:
“Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the State so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated. Social justice means the promotion of the welfare of all the people, the adoption by the Government of measures calculated to ensure economic stability of all the component elements of society, through the maintenance of a proper economic and social equilibrium in the interrelations of the members of the community, constitutionally, through the exercise of powers underlying the existence of all governments on the time-honored principle of salus populi est supremo lex.”
On a side-note, the above is most emphatically not what is reflected in the present chief justice’s thinking concerning social justice and society (his is not a secular approach).
the regime of entitlement is what gets in the way of a genuine community-approach to problems, and there are so many entitlements at play, to take MM as an example. the writ of the mmda ends where the territory of each city and municipality begins. by now the component cities of mm should be as the boroughs of new york are. on the other hand informal settler communities exist and become entrenched, not as a matter of social leveling or compassion, but rather, as a means to set up colonies of captive votes; which is why the economic evolution of individual informal settlers takes place but little change to the community as a whole; but at the same time, if you adopt the argument that it is the lack of title that gets in the way of moving forward, neither do officials have the will to muster an outright expropriation, because property owners are their peers.
delivering real services to the poor is hobbled on one end, by population growth, on the other, by how politically suicidal it might be: villegas cleared intramuros of informal settlers and was replaced as mayor by bagatsing, if i recall my readings correctly.
the codification of laws is slowly taking place, but piecemeal, i wonder if there is even a national inventory of laws and one, furthermore, cross-referenced with municipal and city ordinances: and there, anyway, the approach is positively medieval where the public (all of the public, regardless of economic circumstances) is viewed as a giant tax farm for extraction: everyone must get their cut, and this has been finely honed throughout society. the greatest political crime, for example is not theft, but exclusion of peers and dependents from their share of the cut, this was in essence the real political and social crimes of marcos and estrada, and conversely, the reason there was relative stability prior to martial law. everyone would get their turn at the trough, and encompassed still in how the term “moderate your greed” gained currency in recent years.
the population boom is such a recent phenomenon that generations-old, even centuries-old approaches still have to come to grips with it; that land is a finite resource and that the mere collection of rents has to be moderated somehow; but no better way to ensure a steady income has been found, to make risk-taking attractive and more productive uses of capital catch on. the stock market will boom and bust, industries will grow, wither, and die, but rent collection is almost as dependable as day following night.
how deeply entrenched this approach is best demonstrated by how manny pacquiao has approached his earnings. there is no difference between how he’s handling his money and the way an upper class product of the top schools would.
MLQ3:
I too see where you are coming from. Thus, re Laurel’s definition and I suppose your adherence to the social justice tenets etched somewhere in there, I ruefully say that those are tall words for tall orders. Almost like ensuring their non-fulfillment. I believe no country in the world today even approximates the idealized scenarios therein. Maybe I’m wrong. A tiny country like Norway (5m) could be doing it. Or Singapore, maybe?
And your following succeeding statements contain the formidable damper that will neutralize whatever forward movement the country may accomplish:
delivering real services to the poor is hobbled on one end, by population growth, on the other, by how politically suicidal it might be: villegas cleared intramuros of informal settlers and was replaced as mayor by bagatsing, if i recall my readings correctly.
Not the political suicide part, but definitely population growth which for the old homeland may be approaching runaway proportions, well, at least in the congested urbanized areas. I cite my old hometown of which I am quite familiar.
After almost 30 years of absence and one is confronted with the enormity of social reforms needed just to get back to how it was back in the past. Now a whole new generation of the masa, this time much, much larger in numbers, yet cramped in the same small finite areas collectively called a city, has been spawned with apathy or maybe deliberate disregard of very basic laws and regulations, like those of traffic and respect for private and/or public rights. The streets are chaotic here and could lead to anarchy if unchecked. Squatting (or informal settling as you described it)is so prevalent in both public and private lands, you see it everywhere – under bridges, public drainage systems, along new city roads between the outer lane and the boundaries of private lots, etc.
Given the above, it could only get worse, not better. And pardon the pessimism.
What to do? I do mean real world solutions.
how deeply entrenched this approach is best demonstrated by how manny pacquiao has approached his earnings. there is no difference between how he’s handling his money and the way an upper class product of the top schools would.
Manny’s earning are not handled by Manny per se. His wife and his lawyer have hired a financial planner to help them safeguard Manny’s earnings. They have learned from the experiences of Penalosa and Navarette and other Filipino boxers, who upon tasting the fruits of success, took the path to self-destruction.
Manny is a very avid sabungero. In his previous fights, where his purse would be PhP 1M – he already had a debt of PhP 600K – due to sabong losses. And he has been doing that for quite some time. Without the intervention of his wife, lawyer, and financial planner – he will be scraping the bottom of the barrel when his career is over.
the regime of entitlement is what gets in the way of a genuine community-approach to problems, and there are so many entitlements at play, to take MM as an example. the writ of the mmda ends where the territory of each city and municipality begins. by now the component cities of mm should be as the boroughs of new york are. on the other hand informal settler communities exist and become entrenched, not as a matter of social leveling or compassion, but rather, as a means to set up colonies of captive votes; which is why the economic evolution of individual informal settlers takes place but little change to the community as a whole; but at the same time, if you adopt the argument that it is the lack of title that gets in the way of moving forward, neither do officials have the will to muster an outright expropriation, because property owners are their peers.
delivering real services to the poor is hobbled on one end, by population growth, on the other, by how politically suicidal it might be: villegas cleared intramuros of informal settlers and was replaced as mayor by bagatsing, if i recall my readings correctly.
This has got to change. Somethings gotta give. At the end of the day, elections is a numbers game. A squatter colony will have a number of voters in favor of the status quo. Forces of change can also harness the same technique – voter farms. After all what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
The experiences of the anti-Marcos forces provide lessons in community organizing and cause-oriented advocacy can generate numbers. The methods used are similar to today’s network marketing recruitment methods.
A practical application would be determining how to organize and neutralize the numbers of the squatter colony. when that break-even point is reached, anything above that tilts the probabilities towards the forces of change.
For example, a squatter colony has 40,000 votes. The campaign committee, using network marketing recruitment methodology, can surpass the vote farm by forming a network consisting of 7 layer s of downlines – starting off with 3 “charter” members for change. Given a task that each charter member will recruit only 5, at the second layer, there are now 15 members, generated by the original 3 members – add the original three and that’s already 18 voters. Each new voter recruits 5 more members. The progression goes as:
charter – 3 members x 5 recruits/member
2nd layer – 15 members x 5 recruits/member
3rd layer – 75 members x 5 recruits/member
4th layer – 375 members x 5 recruits/member
5th layer – 1875 members x 5 recruits/member
6th layer – 9375 members x 5 recruits/member
7th layer 46875 members x 5 recruits/member
At the seventh layer, parity against the voters of the squatter colony will have been established. Moreover, these 46,875 will not just be voters – they can be evangelists for positive change. And there’s no stopping one member from recruiting more than 5.
Thus, during the massive mobilizations on the run up to EDSA, the progressives – and that included the organized urban poor communities – can mobilize at will.
Strategists and tacticians out to challenge the status quo have to figure out new methods, new messages, new approaches to bolster the numbers in favor of positive change.
that land is a finite resource and that the mere collection of rents has to be moderated somehow; but no better way to ensure a steady income has been found, to make risk-taking attractive and more productive uses of capital catch on. the stock market will boom and bust, industries will grow, wither, and die, but rent collection is almost as dependable as day following night.
It is okay to collect rent.
On the other side of the equation, the renter has to identify new revenue opportunities that allow him not just to cover the rent, but use the rented property to provide optimal returns many times over the cost of rent.
The relationship gets muddled when the landlord increases the rent thereby reducing the motivation for the renter to innovate.
The renter then looks for other landlords who can provide a better return on their rent expense.
The Lina law, MMDA’s yellow lanes, stiff taxes on books and computers, etc. are the ruling (political and economic) elites’ response to their collective guilt and shame of being unable to provide jobs, increase personal income, and uplift the country to progress and development.
Kung baga ‘pakuwensulo de bobo’ for the lower classes, which give the latter an “entitlement mentality.”
Trouble with these policies is that it hits the middle class, a real engine of economic growth, where it hurts most.
I think an even deeper trouble is that it actually prevents the middle class from expanding and growing to an actual sector that matters.
Feel the pain brother :D
Cocoy… Jon… Renato’s lithium is contagious … an awakening.. the Pinoy intifada! YES! :lol:
to PhilManila: Collective guilt by the economic/political class????
There is zero-percent VAT and customs-tax of 1% or 5% on books. Pinas collects zero on the book-donations from overseas.
It sounds much more like petty-mindedness and stupidity by the bureacratic middle-middle or upper-middle-class civil service workers and nothing to do with Danding, Lucio Tan, the Roxas or Marcos clan and the top 5%-moneyed.
to mlq3: isn’t guaranteed minimum quality of life regardless of desire/ability to compete a rocket-propelled motivation to regime of entitlements?
UP:
if we go by the constitution – we have basic entitlements – life, liberty, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom to own property – and for these freedoms aka entitlements not to be removed without due process of law.
if one group has entitlements, in fairness, shouldn’t everyone else should have these same entitlements.
perhaps, shouldn’ t we be asking whether these entitlements are allocated based on merit or aristocracy or a combination of both. and if not, then how should these entitlements best be apportioned – via inheritance? police power? legislation? the free market?
I’m keying off the words minimum quality of life , which, to me, suggests some list of items to put on “minimumQ” list
— a chicken in every pot for dinner at least X-days-a-week;
— free deworming medicine for all elementary- and high-school students; also P1,000 per year for vitamins;
— free yearly-physical for all;
— free blood-pressure medicine
NOT-ON-THE-minimumQ-list
— free open-heart surgery;
— free transportation for elementary and high-school students;
————
In the end, I am arriving at the conclusion that my original question (does minimumQ promote laziness) is much less relevant than the question of “What can Pinas afford to provide its citizens?”
One only has to look at the number of NGO’s providing quality-of-life services to the poor that PINAS does NOT have money for.
What can Pinas afford to provide its citizens?”
After getting your answer. You will wind up asking more questions?
Can the minimumQ list be expanded? trimmed?
Can government’s ability to afford the minimumQ be increased? How? Increasing revenues? Reducing Expenses? Adding new revenue sources?
I can’t recall where it was mentioned that corruption in the Philippines is equal to 30% of GDP (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) – if these same money is used by trapos to provide entitlements for their captive markets or themselves – there is a possibility that this same amount can be used to fund an expanded minimumQ – if the pilferage is reduced if not eliminated.
which leads to another question how do remove corruption? passively, we can convict and penalize violators. proactively we can filter out possible violators or at least minimize the chances of questionable personalities from getting into office with vast resources – in cash and in kind..
and which converges to a question that becomes more relevant as another election cycle comes to an end, and we have an opportunity to redefine the landscape – this time better prepared.
just a reminder our country and many others are committed, in principle at least, to the millenium development goals, which is pretty much as good a place as any to refer to in terms of minimum quality of life.
http://www.indexmundi.com/philippines/millennium-development-goals.html
thanks for the reminder mlq3. with that as a reference point, the challenge then now becomes how to achieve those goals.
and within the context of the 2010 elections has the highest probability of being able to meet said goals sans the corruption, the cheating in elections, ZTE scandals, Amari, Dacer – all the negative traits that saddled all presidencies after the removal of Marcos.