MANY years ago, the government bought an imported traffic control and management system, hoping perhaps that it could provide magical solutions to the problem of slow traffic flows in Metro Manila.
By now, that system is probably gone, but the problem of slow traffic flows is still here.
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has announced that the problem of slow traffic flows is caused by too many vehicles on the road.
They could be partially correct, but I think that the volume of vehicles is only one of the causes. The proof of that is that there are many other cities in the world that have more vehicles on the road than we do, but their traffic flows are faster than ours.
In fairness to the MMDA, they could actually speed up the flow of traffic by reducing the volume of vehicles, but that is only a partial solution. Even if there are lesser vehicles on the road, the traffic flows would still be slower if the bad habits of many drivers will not change, such as taking over incoming lanes and overtaking in the wrong places.
To echo what the MMDA is saying, I believe that the problem is not just the volume of vehicles, but also the number of errant drivers and the number of those violating the traffic laws.
In other countries, these violators are identified and these names are included in databases that could be the basis for increasing their insurance rates or cancelling their driver’s licenses. The LTO should also become stricter in issuing and renewing these driver’s licenses.
LET’S SUPPORT GLOBAL FILIPINO MOVIES
A few Filipino movies have made it to the Netflix movie streaming platform. I have seen most of them, and I would say that they are world class, meaning that they are as good as any other movies shown in Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime and all other streaming platforms.
I have observed that many of the movies that are shown on these platforms were made with the support of their national film development agencies, such as our own Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). It’s either I missed the movie credits at the end of the films, but I do not remember seeing the name of the FDCP in any of the Filipino films shown on Netflix.
In fairness to the FDCP, I do not think that they lack the interest to support the production of Filipino movies for global release. Obviously, what they are lacking in is the funding to do it, and that is a problem that only the Congress can solve. But to begin with, what is needed perhaps is a change of perspective, meaning that our lawmakers should realize that spending for the production of world class movies is an investment, and not a one-way expense.
While waiting for the support of Congress, perhaps the Office of the President (OP) could invest in the FDCP, since it is directly under the OP. but the first thing that the people in the OP should do is to watch all of those movies that have been globally released so far, to convince them./PN
