2 weeks ago
9
February 26, 2025 | 12:00am
The social compact between the government and the people appears to be broken. The government is obligated to serve the people in return for their consent to be governed. Unfortunately, it seems we have elected a superclass who feel so entitled that they find it beneath their status to even follow the rules on the use of the busway.
Not only do we pay this elected superclass too much in terms of salaries and pork barrel allocations, they manage to get their hands on overpriced government contracts that deliver substandard projects.
On salaries and pork funds alone, our elected representatives end up billionaires many times over after their terms. Parang nanalo sa lotto. But little is given back to us, the source of their power.
To get something done to meet public needs, it is faster and cheaper to do it ourselves by appealing to the private sector to please just get the project done.
A good example is the EDSA Busway stations. Ed Yap, chairman of the transportation committee of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), got tired waiting for the government to get these done. So, he pleaded with the Sy-blings group for help.
Last week, the first of three busway stations opened at SM North EDSA. Two more were promised by the Sy-blings, at Megamall and at MOA. Total cost is P250 million for the two overhead stations and one at-grade station. I understand that DoubleDragon has agreed to finance two busway stations, at EDSA Pasay and at ASEANA at Macapagal Avenue. The stations could have been delivered sooner but the Duterte officials couldn’t give the go signal even if the project is at no cost to the government. Things got going finally, thanks to former DOTr secretary Jimmy Bautista.
Same thing with clogged rivers and constant flooding. The flood control budget of DPWH is notorious for massive corruption which explains why year after year, our flood problems are the same, if not worse. But the flood control budget is the favorite of our legislators because it is difficult for COA to audit how all that money was spent.
The government has already spent P1.2 trillion on flood control projects since 2009. For 2025, the DPWH was given a P257 billion budget for flood control. In the final budget, BBM vetoed or removed at least P16.7 billion worth of flood control projects added by Congress to BBM’s proposed national expenditure program.
For flood control, it seems the private sector does it better. San Miguel Corp. has spent P3 billion over the past four years to clean two rivers, Tullahan and Pasig. SMC bought dredging and other equipment and did what had to be done to reduce flooding, deepen and widen rivers that were once shallow and polluted, remove millions of tons of solid waste, boost flood mitigation efforts and improve water quality.
Including the total output of its Pasig River cleanup, which includes the still-ongoing cleanup of the San Juan River (1,437,391 tons of silt and wastes) and the completed Tullahan River cleanup (1,124,183 metric tons), SMC’s river rehabilitation efforts have removed over 4.5 million tons of wastes from approximately 68 kilometers of river systems.
SMC began its massive river cleanup program in 2020, a P1-billion initiative to clean up an 11-kilometer stretch of the Tullahan River. SMC then took on the more difficult challenge of cleaning up the Pasig River starting in 2021, for which it spent another P2 billion.
SMC has started conducting bathymetric studies at the Pampanga River, following the completion of river studies in another catch basin in Bulacan.
These studies aim to assess the depth of water across the river channels and determine the shallow areas that restrict the flow of water through both provinces before reaching Manila Bay. Heavy siltation and pollution in these rivers are major contributors to the widespread flooding in both Bulacan and Pampanga.
SMC is extending its cleanup operations in Bulacan to include the upstream areas of the Meycauayan, Marilao, Bocaue and Guiguinto; other main river systems in different catch basins in Malolos, Hagonoy and Calumpit; the Pampanga River, and rivers in Laguna, Cavite, Navotas, Parañaque and San Juan.
The way SMC’s Ramon Ang explains it, he saw a need and he just went right down to addressing the need. He didn’t flinch on billions of pesos needed to cover the cost of cleaning up the rivers because as he puts it, what SMC did benefited the communities they serve. I might add, at a cost lower than if the government did it.
The one thing I wish SM and the supermarket arm of the Gokongwei Group would do is import rice for resale in their outlets.
This is one big way to counteract the strong control of the rice trading cartel on rice importation, retail distribution and pricing.
BBM and Sec. Tiu Laurel must realize this is a better way than getting NFA to distribute rice in very limited locations covered by Kadiwa outlets. The other benefit to the taxpayers is that no government subsidy will be involved.
There are so many things that ought to be done in our country that require a strong partnership between the private sector and the government. All that’s required is a little bit of imagination and a willingness to look beyond a relentless pursuit of profits.
The P3 billion San Miguel spent cleaning up rivers may have reduced their 2023 gross income of approximately P225.8 billion somewhat.
But that’s P3 billion well spent. For the country, it was better for San Miguel to have spent that money cleaning the rivers than pay that in taxes that would be stolen anyway by our officials.
If we want a better Philippines, we can’t wait for our government to make it happen. We have to do it ourselves.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on x @boochanco
