Domondon: A gesture of accommodation

THE CITY Council during its 4th regular session last Monday presided over by Vice Mayor Daniel T. Fariñas acceded to the request by several jeepney associations from our neighbor La Trinidad, Benguet that they be allowed once more, on a temporary basis, to traverse and utilized as their route going to Baguio the Buhagan road (formerly Bokawkan road).

This is a slight turn around from their earlier position manifested by an approved ordinance that seeks to prohibit the use of Buahagan road by jeepneys coming from La Trinidad.

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On the other hand, the approval by the august body for La Trinidad jeepneys to once again traverse Buhagan road was given only after the imposition of several guidelines and limitations which must be strictly followed. Some of these limitations are that the use by La Trinidad jeepneys of the said road will be on an experimental basis and will only be good for twenty days. Another limitation is that only seven jeepney associations from La Trinidad will be allowed to use the road with four hundred twelve of their jeepneys. Still another restriction is that these jeepneys that will ply the Buhagan route will be covered by an odd-even scheme and must strictly follow the "Sticker system" (a blue sticker in this case) so that they will not ply the route of Magsaysay Avenue in Baguio City.

In picking up and transporting passengers the council also imposed a strict "Pick and Go system" which is an express type of loading, and there will be no terminal or staging area with only three vehicles at any given time allowed to stand-by across Café by the Ruins under the said system. As explained under a pick and go scheme of loading three jeepneys will be made to wait in line with the first jeepney ready to go upon the arrival of another jeepney. This means that even if the jeepney that is first in line has not yet been fully loaded with passengers or even if it has no load at all, upon the arrival of the fourth jeepney it has to go to maintain the number of three vehicles waiting in line. Meanwhile, the area for unloading of passengers will only be at Yandoc Street particularly the portion of the road where concrete barriers were erected adjacent the Justice Hall building.

To my mind this seems to be a fair enough decision on the part of the city council since after twenty days if circumstances and events will show that the experiment will only exacerbate the traffic situation in the city and that more people in the city will suffer inconvenience than be benefitted from it the scheme can be easily withdrawn by executive action or simply go back to implementing the earlier ordinance banning the use by La Trinidad jeepneys of Buhagan road.

The action made by the city council on the matter was simply to extend a gesture of accommodation and even perhaps goodwill albeit of a temporary nature, towards the jeepney operators and drivers of La Trinidad who are also trying to make a living by ferrying passengers to and from their municipality to Baguio. In one sense the approval can be interpreted as a humanitarian act considering the present economic hardships that everybody is facing. If all of these La Trinidad jeepneys will be lumped together in one route as in Magsaysay Avenue then there will definitely be a decrease in their take home income for their families and as the traffic situation goes, will more or less aggravate the vehicular congestion in the area. In another sense, the approval by the city council of the said experimental scheme is one in many attempts to find a so called 'solomonic' solution to the traffic problem in the city. A dilemma that unfortunately will not simply go away due to the fact that the city sits at a crossroads of sorts or, a gateway to the cordilleras where by necessity a great volume of vehicles pass by it to reach their eventual destinations. Not to mention of course the fact that over the years the people has seen a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles both public and private, constantly traversing the city's national and local roads.

Now that the city council has made its decision it is up to the selected jeepney associations to show good faith by religiously complying with the guidelines and limitations laid down by the august body. Although unmentioned, the challenge is clear to these jeepney associations allowed to use Buhagan road, they will have to prove that they can become part of the solution to the traffic problem in the city or in the opposite become an added problem that will constrain the city council to reconsider and re-think its position in granting the privilege.

On other matters, the city council decided on an omnibus motion to simply note ( as recommended) eight items in the agenda, forward to appropriate offices five matters of concern, granted favorable review to two items dealing with the annual and supplemental budgets of the Barangays, approved on first reading three items, and approved two proposed ordinances with one approved on second reading dispensing with the third and the other approved on first reading dispensing with the second and third reading.