Patients die as Manila traffic jams

Special lanes for emergency vehicles are not enforced, the infrastructure is outdated, and local drivers are often unwilling or unable to make way  a situation experts say is causing patients to die en route.

President Rodrigo Duterte again chided Sen. Grace Poe for supposedly blocking his emergency powers to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, saying that the traffic gridlock in the capital region was the lawmaker’s “legacy.”

The President said Poe had been suspicious that the money for traffic-related projects could be lost to corruption.

A patients die as Manila traffic jams block ambulances.

Gridlock in Manila is costing lives as ambulances stuck in traffic face severe delays in the race against the clock to reach the city’s hospitals, medics warn.

The most difficult problems—such as the EDSA traffic—sometimes need extreme ideas to solve them. At this point, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) seems to remain open to any suggestion.

Even with an encyclopedic knowledge of short cuts or aggressive driving such as blasting their horns or bumping unyielding vehicles, it is not always enough to arrive in time.

The MMDA entertained a proposal for a one-way scheme on EDSA and C5 to solve the metro’s traffic woes. Now, agency spokesperson Celine Pialago notified us that a ‘vehicular brand reduction program’ will be presented to the MMDA on Monday, September 2, 2019.

What can government do about people dying in ambulances because of Metro Manila’s infamous traffic jams? Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo suggested the use of choppers to airlift patients. But why did they do that?

Panelo said government hospitals can ask the Philippine military to let them use their choppers for such emergency situations.

It’s one of the ways government can be “creative” in dealing with the literally deadly traffic nightmare in the megacity while the Duterte government does not have emergency powers over the situation.

Of course, like the current number-coding scheme imposed on EDSA at the moment, the proposed scheme makes a number of exemptions for certain vehicles. See the list of exempted vehicles below:

• Ambulance, fire trucks, police patrol cars, military vehicles
• Cargo trucks, other heavy vehicles (trucks weighing 4,500kg and above)
• Vehicles accredited by the Department of Tourism
• Vehicles commandeered by the government—duly directed by a person in authority or his agent, a medical practitioner, or a military relief—for emergency purposes
• Vehicles carrying a person needing immediate medical attention (in case of emergencies)
• Vehicles with diplomatic plates
• Trucks accredited by the MMDA
• Government vehicles with appropriate plates or LTO stickers

We have yet to find out other details about this proposed coding scheme. Just like you, we have so many questions. We will have to wait until the presentation to get answers.

In the meantime, Do you think something this extreme would actually work?

Despite the crisis-level proportions of Metro Manila’s traffic woes, Duterte has not certified as urgent any legislative measure to grant his government emergency powers.

Duterte fires Faeldon

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised news conference that Undersecretary Nicanor Faeldon of the Bureau of Corrections would immediately resign for disobeying his order to halt the releases of convicted prisoners under the 2014 law. Officials are now demanding a review of the "Good Conduct Time Allowance" law.

Prison officials will be investigated by a special anti-corruption prosecutor called the Ombudsman in connection with the massive releases of convicts, Duterte said. A Senate Blue Ribbon committee has opened a formal inquiry into the releases.

Duterte ordered at least 1,700 prisoners who have been freed since the law took effect to surrender in 15 days, either for a re-computation of their jail time or for investigations to determine if they paid their way to freedom in corrupt deals with prison officials.

During the second Senate hearing on the implementation of a law increasing good conduct time allowance for prisoners, Lacson pointed out that Faeldon’s statements regarding his involvement in the now canceled release of Sanchez was confusing and inconsistent.

“Obviously he is lying or he was lying yesterday. He is lying today… There is no logical conclusion except that he is not telling the truth,” said by Sen. Lacson.

Lacson quizzed Faeldon on why he signed a memorandum that effectively approved Sanchez’s release order and canceled the same on August 20.

But Faeldon insisted it was not a release order but just a "memorandum of release" that should have started the processing of Sanchez. Faeldon then said he himself recalled the memorandum.

National police chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde ordered the deployment of police to track down the convicts, who police said in a statement "will be treated as fugitives if they choose not to surrender."

The releases sparked an outcry after it was reported that one of the convicts being considered for freedom was former Mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted in 1995 in the killings of two university students. One was gang raped and then shot.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution abolished the death penalty but capital punishment was reintroduced in 1993, then abolished again in 2006. Duterte, who took office in 2016, has advocated harsh anti-crime measures and the return of the death penalty in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

A 2014 law allows for prisoners to be released early for good behavior.

It is being scrutinized by lawmakers after public outrage triggered by reports that a former mayor convicted of raping and murdering two university students in 1993 could have walked free before his prison term ended.

Close to 2,000 inmates serving a life sentence have been freed under the 2014 law, Senator Franklin Drilon said on Sunday, but their release orders were invalid because they were not approved by the Department of Justice Secretary.