Safety on the road

Recently, one of the buses of Don Mariano Transit figured in an accident where it is reported that 18 people died (see photo below).

Photo Credit: Manila Bulletin, December 16, 2013 by Michael Varcas

The attention of everyone, especially our government officials, is most earnestly called towards past proposals, suggestions, recommendations, encouragement, admonitions, for making transport safety a key concern of the public sector.

At this time, whether or not the Philippine Government under Pres. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino the 3rd will listen to all these unsolicited advice will be the determinant of the future of public safety on the streets of the country, sea and ocean lanes, and the Philippine air ways.

One of the hundreds of proposals on transport safety became a certified legislation of the Ramos Administration in 1994-1995. It was an executive order draft that instead was forwarded with strong endorsement by former President Fidel V. Ramos to the two houses of Congress to be made into Law due to the inclusion of a component providing for changes in users' fees and charges in the transportation industry.

Because Congress holds the power of the purse and is the only one mandated to create taxes, fees and charges that will be levied upon the public, Congress was the last stop of the proposal for transport safety. Under the late Pres. Corazon Aquino, the same proposal was submitted to Malacanang because of the need for a Philippine council on Safety - or any kind of agency concerned with Safety in general.

If we look at our Philippine Government's structure, there is a myriad of government units, offices, bureaus on safety. From the Department of Labor, Health, National Defense, Transportation and Communications, and the list goes on and on. Despite this however, or because of too many duplicating functions, there is a seeming confusion as to who will be responsible for this and that concern on Safety.

Hundreds of world, international, regional Conventions, conferences and Workshops are held all over the the globe on Safety. The United Nations, cognizant of the value and importance of the universal concern of Safety, has elevated its status consistently from low to a very high Category under the UN Structure.

Therefore a single agency, unifying at least a wide array of safety concerns and lessening the duplication and conflicts of functions of too many agencies under the bureaucracy was proposed.

Out of these proposals, at least one was favored to become law: the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) Act that came about due to the strong wording by Malacanang stating that the proposed law was part of its certified legislative agenda for the period.

That certified priority legislation under the Ramos administration, became law. Secretary Vicente Rivera, past head of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) disclosed that former Congressman Manuel A. Roxas III and Senator Franklin D. Drilon were very instrumental in making the draft bill become law.

During her tenure in Malacanang, the late Philippine President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, appointed a lady by the name of Emilia Boncodin to the post of Director at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Eventually, Ms. Boncodin rose in the ranks and became Assistant Secretary, Undersecretary and yet was the source of complaints from too many sectors due to her insistence on ten percent (10%) commission or kickback for herself when it became her turn to be the one to release the payments to government service providers. When the supplier-contractors could not produce the cash, Ms. Boncodin will hold the payment hostage in return for a post-dated cheque or any other debt instrument, bank note that will ensure her 10% kickback will be paid.

However enormous and tremendous were the monies earned by this Boncodin in the past due to the immense, uncontrollable power of hostaging and illegal detention of the DBM, Boncodin refused and returned the enacted and signed (by President Ramos) Law creating the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to Congress.

Her reason was that DBM did not have Fifty Million Philippine Pesos (Php50-M) to cover the operationalization of the NTSB into a functional office. While amassing more than a few billions in office, Boncodin refused to fund Php50-M for the NTSB Law.  More  >  >