IN the face of the anarchy in the streets of Metro Manila, the paralysis that follows every heavy downpour, and the inability – nay, the unwillingness – of local officials to enforce such obvious rules as clearing major streets (like Taft Avenue) of vendors, desperate citizens have concocted various antidotes.
What has often been proposed is a “czar” – some kind of super manager who can untangle the mess. One clueless Quezon City congressman recommended a traffic czar on top of the current MMDA traffic czar on top of the traffic czars of the local governments in the metropolis.
Making much better sense, columnist Efren Cruz has suggested a Metro Manila governance czar. Wrote Cruz: “The problems of traffic, floods, illegal vendors, delays in public works construction, jurisdictional disputes, squatting, crime, land use planning, and urban mass transportation system are all intertwined. They cannot be solved separately. The activities needed to ensure the realization of the urban environment we all desire are all linked into one Metro Manila value chain.
“Call him the Metro Manila ‘Czar’ or Chair of a Metro Manila Inter Agency Task Force. The title is immaterial. The need is for a working Metro Manila governance structure now and a capable person, with the coercive powers, to be the head. I hope the public will endorse and support this proposal.”
In fact, without using the pretentious term “czar,” there is supposed to be one such public official in the person of the chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, Francis Tolentino. Unfortunately, he is neither competent nor armed with “coercive powers.”
Indeed, we must have realized by now that titles and good intentions alone do not an effective “czar” or “chairman” make. In fact, even competence alone, while essential, does not guarantee results.
What is needed is someone gifted with a combination of competence, vision, a tireless work ethic, a capacity for paying attention to details, and a can-do, nothing-is-impossible attitude.
On top of all that, such an official must wield power. The power to compel self-important local officials and agency heads to get their act together under pain of dismissal. The power to railroad a project over objections, legal or otherwise. And the power to tell loafers to get off their fat asses or get lost.
I can only think of one such individual: Former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
Whatever detractors might think about her, Mrs. Marcos possessed that rare combination of vision, capacity for hard work, a penchant for detail and an unwillingness to acknowledge the impossible – over other people’s dead bodies. Plus power.
To say that she was a hands-on manager, is an understatement. She was known to make surprise visits in the dead of night to check on the progress of her projects. She personally directed the table settings and décor for official receptions in Malaca ñang. And while she was awake (which seemed to be at all hours), no one could afford to be caught sleeping on the job.
I believe it was she who persuaded President Marcos to issue Presidential Decree 824, creating the Metro Manila Commission, with her as Governor and Ismael Mathay, Jr. as Vice-Governor. It was the forerunner of the present Metro Manila Development Authority.
Whatever her ultimate agenda was (did she want to become President? Well, why not?), she had a vision for Metro Manila as “The City of Man.” Her verbiage may have sounded corny (“The good, the true and the beautiful”), but she translated that into such structures as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Folk Arts Theater, the Philippine International Convention Center, the Lung Center, Philippine Heart Center, Kidney Center and the Coconut Palace, as well as the Manila Film Center (an example of getting something done, over dead bodies).
She introduced a rational, state-owned air-conditioned transport system, the Love Bus, where the drivers felt no pressure to meet “boundary.” And she mounted a successful campaign to keep Metro Manila clean with an army of uniformed street sweepers (I recall a trip to Thailand where I felt good about being from Manila, after noting the liter in Bangkok’s streets at the time).
It was also during her watch that the idea of dredging Laguna de Bay and building a waterway up to Manila Bay was seriously considered. That was the forerunner of the Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project that could have done much to mitigate the problem of flooding (unfortunately scuttled by the Aquino government, ostensibly in order to foil graft).
Beyond Metro Manila, she had a vision for the entire country. For this reason, she also got herself appointed head of the Ministry of Human Settlements, a super-cabinet that had its tentacles in virtually every aspect of governance (obviously, a template for Mar Roxas’ vastly expanded Department of Interior and Local Governments).
But compared to the analysis-paralysis and clueless “convergent approach” style of management of Roxas, Dinky Soliman and Voltaire Gazmin (one of the main reasons why many of the victims of Yolanda are still suffering up to now) Mrs. Marcos was decisive and brooked no opposition, once she had made up her mind.
She even managed to have her way over the objections of President Marcos himself. I was privy to one such instance.
I had never met Mrs. Marcos until Bongbong Marcos became hermano mayor of the Tacloban Santo Ni ño fiesta. In true Imeldific fashion, she envisioned more than a town fiesta. She wanted a national festival, showcasing a cultural parade, similar to her Kasaysayan ng Lahi spectacular, plus a pageant and a book on the history of Leyte and Samar.
For these, she sent for the twin provinces’ noted poets and writers. However, she was informed that they had all passed away but that their children were still around. That was how my elder brother Eduardo, Jr., my cousin Yen, his maternal uncle, Ben Pe ñaranda, Leyte poet Paquing Javines, and I got summoned to Malacañang.
Together with a Cultural Center creative and production team familiar with the First Lady’s management style, we started work with a lead time of just over a month. For Mrs. Marcos, that was not a problem. She simply told us to miss our sleep. She did, too.
At any rate, a few days before the event, Mrs. Lourdes Villacorta, Mrs. Marcos’ chief of staff, informed her that President Marcos had given instructions to unload from the presidential yatch, Pagasa, all the sets, props and costumes intended for the Tacloban event. His reason: The Santo Ni ño fiesta was not an official government activity.
I watched Mrs. Marcos’ calm expression as she listened to the report. Without missing a beat, she gave instructions to have the materials loaded instead in the vehicles of the Ministry of Information and transported overland, across Luzon, to Samar and on to Tacloban. They arrived in time for the festival.
I’m sure the President learned about the questionable use of government vehicles, but at that point, it was a fait accompli.
What about the current Metro Manila mess? With Imelda Marcos in charge, after making heads roll, she would have gotten the MRT and LRT properly equipped, operational and well-maintained; grounded the colorum buses and reactivated the Love Bus; ordered the dredging of esterosand canals over the protests of squatters and land grabbers – and the Supreme Court would not have dared issue a temporary restraining order.
And, in the middle of a typhoon, she would have monitored the situation to make sure that Metro Manila mayors, the PNP brass and officials of the MMDA were on the job.
But all that is wishful thinking. Even Imelda Marcos would be ineffective under a President who is in the habit of passing the buck. ([email protected] )
