In catch up mode, daw!

Administration insiders I have talked to in recent days open the conversation by saying that they are now in catch up mode, specially in the infrastructure area. I shouldn’t worry too much about DOTC, some of them reassured me, because P-Noy is already on their case.

Then they laugh and say that perhaps my nagging has finally started to bear fruit. They tell me they themselves can’t figure out what’s wrong with DOTC but that P-Noy is starting to get annoyed at the non-performance.

They tell me too that P-Noy is aware that he is in the tail end of his term and he needs to show some concrete accomplishments as legacy. I am told that the President realizes that for the public, they rate a President based on infrastructure he has built. That’s why P-Noy is now on catch up mode.

I reply that to see is to believe. They have gone this far in P-Noy’s term without building even a waiting shed at DOTC. There is nothing I can see, short of a P-Noy tantrum, that will make them change their ways. Then again, even if a presidential tantrum happens, they are likely to run out of time.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Chiz Escudero announced a Senate investigation on the do-nothing DOTC. I doubt if he can find out anything substantive by calling the DOTC top brass. Those people already have their scripts ready to justify their lack of concrete performance.

Nothing is happening at DOTC because the de campanilla lawyers Mar Roxas brought in at the top of the department don’t know what they are doing. They are lawyers, not engineers and DOTC is an infra agency that needs engineers… civil engineers, mechanical engineers… electrical engineers not lawyers in key positions.

And even as lawyers, they may be great corporate lawyers who can advice clients how to go around our Constitution’s foreign ownership restrictions but they apparently know nothing about how to craft proper bidding documents. The communications between bidders and the DOTC lawyers expose the technical deficiency of the lawyers.

In fact, they should talk to bidders who bought expensive bid documents but decided not to bid after spending a lot of money preparing their bid. The credible international bidders backed out of the MRT 3 bidding for the rail cars. This resulted in a so-called public bidding with only one bidder that is now raising eyebrows.

The LTO computer system is the same thing. After three failed biddings, the reputable bidders have backed out, again after buying the expensive bid documents and investing money in bid preparation. Why are bidders backing out at DOTC?

There are those who say the reason for DOTC’s inaction is this fear of the Mar Roxas lawyers/technocrats of being sued at the end of their government tenure. They are so afraid to sign anything which explains why they would rather simulate activity, but do nothing.

The thing is, such legal challenges are part of the job for anyone who accepts public office. It may be unfortunate and an unreasonable burden for people with good intentions of serving the public, but it shouldn’t prevent anyone who agrees to take on a government position from making decisions.

The irony of it all is that this “segurista” stance has not prevented DOTC from doing questionable things. Coming to mind are the contracts awarded to single bidders in the case of the MRT 3 operations and maintenance (O and M) contract and the supply of train cars by a lone Chinese bidder.

The “segurista” mindset is probably also why DOTC is always on “study” mode. All of the pending DOTC projects have been studied ad nauseam in the past. Indeed, a JICA consultant commented in a public forum that he is tired of studying rail and other transport projects over the course of two decades. At some point, I recall him saying, a decision to implement has to be made.

There were many so called low hanging fruits or projects that could have been easily implemented by DOTC so that P-Noy can claim some accomplishment before he bows out of office. Building that measly 4-kilometer Masinag LRT2 extension is the most obvious one. I doubt it can be done before June 2016. Nothing is happening on the ground yet.

I once sat down with DOTC usec Timmy Limcaoco and we reviewed the timeline of their projects… what are doable within P-Noy’s term. He mentioned the Bicol International Airport in Daraga, Albay as ongoing and deliverable. I subsequently checked with Albay Gov Joey Salceda and he said nothing is happening there. Bola lang pala!

The Puerto Princesa International Airport is the first DOTC project approved by P-Noy in October 2010. I haven’t heard the news that it has finally broken ground.

Of course we all know about Laguindingan Airport in Cagayan de Oro, a carryover project that was started during Ate Glue’s watch. P-Noy inaugurated it even as it was hardly complete. It didn’t have navigational facilities so it operates under visual flight rules. Weather is unpredictable in that area so flights are cancelled once too often. It is now known as Hindi Malandingan Airport.

Not to forget, Mar Roxas promised night landing facilities in several domestic airports to help relieve congestion of day time flights in NAIA. Not one airport will get that soon.

The MRT 7, a PPP project of San Miguel is also taking too much time within the bureaucracy. This time, DOTC is washing its hands of any responsibility, pointing instead to DOF. A project that started years ago, MRT 7 had to undergo another NEDA processing when the Aquino administration took office.

I can appreciate the need for re-negotiating some portions of the contract to protect the public interest since a DOF financial undertaking is required. But after long renegotiations and the project finally got cleared by NEDA for the second time, nothing has happened yet.

San Miguel is still waiting for the DOF undertaking. When some reporters asked Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima what is holding it up, he said the papers were sent to Malacañang for P-Noy’s signature many weeks ago… only after P-Noy signs it will Purisima sign the financial undertaking.

But isn’t P-Noy the chairman of NEDA? Isn’t a NEDA approval a P-Noy approval as well? Given that this is a vital infra project that will open up an underserved area of Bulacan, why does it have to take the slow route to P-Noy’s desk?

Despite the Makati RTC dismissing the case filed by MTRC, the MRT 3 legal problems are not over. There is the arbitration case in Singapore.

They could have saved themselves a lot of problems if DOTC played ball with Manny Pangilinan. MVP offered to take responsibility for the MRT 3 rehab, including the procurement of the train cars (saving government billions in capex) and give a royalty to government too. But DOTC insisted on doing it (I wonder why?) and ignored the legal issues involved. It’s a mess.

The bidding for the computer system seems headed to the courts too. Some local bidders feel discriminated by an anti Filipino provision in the terms of reference. And what is this I hear that DOTC specified that the new system will no longer let us get our drivers license renewals within an hour in the LTO mall offices but 30 days by mail?

DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya says the car license plates will be delivered starting next month. That seems to be good news but again, to see is to believe. They have said that months ago too and nothing happened.

Sec. Abaya also promised to make NAIA 3 usable by May in time for the World Economic Forum to be held here, even if completion is by July yet. Six international airlines are set to be relocated to NAIA 3 so most of the delegates won’t have to see the hellhole known as NAIA 1. Again, to see is to believe.

The Aquino administration is in a catch up mode, they tell me. I have seen no evidence that DOTC folks now have a sense of urgency. If the President is serious about delivering some concrete achievements, he will have to light a huge fire under the asses of the jackasses running his infra agencies.

Frankly, I am not sure P-Noy is capable of that. He babies his cabinet members too much. P-Noy accepts excuses for failure.

Catch up mode, they say? It is all press releases until concrete results are there for everyone to see. –Boo Chanco (The Philippine Star)