Angeles City Mayor Jonjon Lazatin hit the ground running. In his inaugural speech, he minced no words what he inherited from the previous administration of his half-brother ex- Mayor Pogi Lazatin who presided in city hall for six years. He spoke of his inherited problems like the garbage mess all over the city, traffic etc. I heard nothing yet how the fiscal management was done under the watch of former Mayor Pogi. Is the finances of the city healthy? How much total is the city indebted which Mayor Jonjon has to shoulder? That will be another story.
Extemporaneously speaking Mayor Jon detailed his vision. He was most applauded when he announced the suspension of the controversial environmental fee. An amendment of the ordinance is forthcoming and series of public hearings will be held soon. Meanwhile, he looked back a little on what he will be confronted within the next three years.(Btw. Revamps are currently done among personnel in the city hall. Key personnel during Mayor Pogi’s time like City Administrator Willie Rivera, Chief Adviser and Tactician IC Calaguas, Executive Assistant Reina Manuel already have their replacements. My insider at city hall said many of the JO workers either they will be transferred or be given the pink slips.
Mayor Jon expressed his dismay on the traffic situation despite the many roads he funded during his term as congressman. So many suggestions. So many experiments. So many ridiculous and crazy ideas on how to solve the traffic problem. Angeles is not alone in this problem though. The traffic jams are also a serious concern of every cities in the country, and even small town like Porac and Magalang.
As it is estimated, the Philippines loses some P3 billion a day due to the traffic gridlocks. I remember writing in my earlier articles that you don't have to re-invent the wheels to ease congestions. Ingenuity is not even necessary. So simple. Why don’t we give it a try?
For big towns and cities an ordinance can be enacted and require all establishments malls , casinos, call centers, offices and every commercial establishments to provide shuttle buses to their officers and employees. The number of shuttles is based in the ratio of each establishments's employees. Example: If an office has 50 to 60 employees= one shuttle and if more than 60, then two shuttle buses, if more than a thousand then the ratio per shift.
Note In Clark Freeport there are hundreds of thousand workers, aside from the thousands of visitors. All companies, hotels, factories, casinos, etc were required to provide shuttles, so no bus companies and only few jeepneys made a route run. The result: No traffic jam.
Provide a minimum of two lanes for all buses, transport and shuttles. In cases where the road is five lanes on both like in EDSA, the three lanes should be exclusive to the buses, and the remaining two for private vehicles. In the MacArthur Highway stretch in Angeles, an exclusive lane for motorcycles can be provided.
Only private cars with not less than two (2) passengers can be allowed to ply the innermost lane. The others on secondary lane.
Get the colorum buses out of the roads, and sell these to small companies for use as their shuttles.
Stricter law enforcement. Remove 'happy Friday' wherein some bus and jeepney associations pay regular 'contributions' to road enforcers.
* Remove all smoke belchers and penalize emission test companies which issued the clearance. All the above are worth trying.