Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Ledesma: All we need are simple solutions By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had a stopover in Davao City on her route back to Manila from the Apec forum in Australia. I hoped she traveled by land on her visit to Pastor Quiboloy's mountain spiritual retreat kingdom up in the promontory of Tamayong, Calinan. This is so she will cross over Bankerohan Bridge and share the travails of crossing whatever is left of the old Governor Generoso bridge.
It has been over six months since the western span of bridge collapsed. We had been assured in not a few instances that the restoration of the bridge would be accomplished before December. Then they changed plans and schedules as frequently as their whims.
One year is about to elapse from the time the bridge collapsed, we still have to see a single pile or even nail driven to signal the start of the work.
It is this bureaucratic gibberish that alienates people from Malacanang and Malacanang from the people. I don't think that it would need one-tenth of 10 percent of what the government needs to set up that graft-ridden ZTE deal to rebuild Bankerohan bridge.
Maybe the cost estimates for a new concrete bridge is too small for the government big shots to worry about. The smaller the cost, the smaller the commission. That's the way it is.
ZTE is multi-billion therefore it gets top priority that the chairman of even a non-aligned agency like Commission on Elections allegedly helped in getting the questionable deal push through. What lends this an even shadier color is the President's nonchalance over the overwhelming protestations of various sectors, which have been urging her to scuttle the deal.
More than half the problems of our country need simple solutions. A classic example is our Governor Generoso Bridge. It needs uncomplicated action. Nearly a year of planning a short bridge reflects how moronic our engineers are and how insensitive is our national leadership.
This is what makes the economic gains irrelevant to our people. Government talks big but the effects of this bigness are not perceptible to the hoi-polloi. Maybe it's about time we talk about small things. The national broadband network for example is big but superfluous. While the brouhaha is centered on the devious negotiated contract, the gargantuan cost and people in high places who are allegedly on the take, little is said about the fact that broadband network of private and even existing government telcos have still excessive capacities.
If PLDT, GLOBE, Bayantel, PT&T, SMART and Telecfil are not scared of Malacanang's reproach if they tell the truth, President Arroyo will be surprised to know that what the national broadband that her subalterns is telling her as badly needed is actually already in place.
At least I know six companies in existence have telecommunications backbone that is available anytime. I believe that there is nothing that the ZTE can offer which our local telecommunication firms cannot provide.
More than half the sum of what DOTC and Comelec's Benjamin Abalos are scheming can be saved and put to fund other projects that could increase the productivity and income of the small guys.
What we need Madam President is simple solutions. The big things can follow later. Senator Dick Gordon's bringing of a C-130 to Jolo to ferry the products of fruit tree growers and fishermen to Rustan's and other prime markets in Metro Manila is a simple move, although seldom thought of by so-called bright boys in government.
Dick knows as well as we do that a kilo of mangosteen in Jolo is bought by a "jambolero" (middleman) for only P5 or P10 at the most. If he has the means to bring his products to Manila, his income will definitely quadruple. This is palliative but it makes government relevant. It defuses conflict because economic activity will overtake the inhabitants' preoccupation to engage in banditry and terrorism. The cost is small compared to the cost of military hardware and our soldiers' lives.
On the permanent and sustainable solution, maybe you can enhance your "national highway project." The roro system in Ozamiz City for example is so inefficient.
Why not spend that ZTE loan intended for redundant and unessential broadband network to improve on the delivery system of Mindanao products to Luzon.
Dismantle the shipping cartel and the exorbitant cost of cargo handling to bring down the cost of transport within the affordability of small entrepreneurs and farmers cooperatives?
All we ask are simple things. Give us our bridge to start with and then scrap the ZTE deal for it is rife with anomaly. We are happy that she has ordered a review. We suggest that she goes beyond just reviewing. She ought to order an investigation and then promptly give walking papers to all those involved in this mess.
As I wrote this column we received an invitation from Mayor Duterte to join his party to meet President GMA in Tamayong. We scooted to Pastor Quiboloy's fascinating prayer mountain. What the President did is subject of a future column.
What I did however is to whisper to the mayor to prod the president to personally look into why our bridge had been delayed. Well, the president promised that the elusive bridge will be completed on or before April.
What had delayed it, according to Mayor Duterte, was the president's own perception that the initial estimate was overpriced.
She had the program of work reviewed and checked on the estimates anew. Having done that President GMA assured Mayor Duterte that we will have the bridge by April. Hello and welcome Madam President. We will look forward to that presidential guarantee.
