Bureaucracy in the Private Sector; Citizen Initiative to Social or Political Issues

I talked to my friend yesterday about this tricycle flyover that can ideally fix traffic in the Concha Cruz / Alabang-Zapote intersection and will also make public transport (taking trikes) more efficient. I don't think it's ever been done before. But you know we have a lot of engineers, architects, and designers and I'm sure people can make it happen. I should probably make a 3D rendition of the flyover concept to give you a better idea but then it's gonna be real hard to model Concha Cruz and I'm lazy.

A part of the responsibility here is in the officials that BF elected. BF is a huge village and I'm sure they do have a lot of revenue. The only spending I see useful as of now is the hiring of the perimiter guards. I don't think they even bother fixing problems in the main roads. Everything else inside including lighting, most roads, and security is provided by a smaller sovereign territory or the villages within the village (inception).

A part of the responsibility is also in the TODA, a voluntary association of tricycle owners common here in the Philippines, who should lobby the BF officials to try and make solutions for this. If the issue of traffic is taken care of then they will have more profits and lines wouldn't be as long; more profitable and more efficient.

A part of the responsibility is in the residents as well. Aside from petitioning the officials they elected, maybe they should care more about the election process to begin with. Also, be more informed about the local village constitution, rules, regulation, or any sort of private law they have. Maybe people shouldn't irresponsibly just park on the side of roads? Maybe traffic rules should be more enforced and there should be more (if there are even any) security inside the village not just on the perimeter? Maybe spending should be audited? I don't know, but that's for the residents to decide. 

I got very interested in this topic because my village all voluntarily donated to build a catholic church on our park (which is, technically, public property or commonly owned by residents of the village). I have nothing against churches at all but then from a more pragmatic point of view, how I wish we just spent all that money to buy a firetruck and train some of the guards to know how to use it. We spent millions on a small building or venue to exercise freedom of religion and freedom of assembly only for a select sector of the village (the catholics) even when surely there are some residents of other christian sectors or probably even entirely have a different religion. I would prefer for homeowners associations officials to be secular. And again, a firetruck or ambulance could have been more practical. Ayala Alabang and Southvale (by Daang Hari) have their own firetrucks. 

My father always tells me his story of how he lost his old house through a fire. It's very tragic and I just think it's more practical for us to have our own firetruck and not rely on the public sector. With traffic and all, it'll probably take a public sector firetruck a really long time to get here.

Or it doesn't even have to be a firetruck. Maybe better security? Equip our guards with night vision or infrared cameras (I saw a bunch on Amazon that aren't that expensive; definitely cheaper than building a church). It's an exaggeration but it is true that we almost always ignore utilizing technology when it comes to governance.

I also like the humps in Ayala Alabang now, how they took out the humps on the side on the other side of the intersection where it's not really needed at all and just wastes gas and time. They also have strong enforcement of traffic rules. But it's not just their big revenue that makes them so efficient, it's the way this revenue is spent or managed. If we can make our own villages more transparent and democratic, through competition and innovation, we can eventually be just like Ayala Alabang or even better.

I guess this reflects our view, from a micro-level awareness of sorts, of governance as a whole. Our country can have better roads, better management of money, transparent spending, firetrucks (hehe), etc. 

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Flood in Roxas Boulevard

This post was actually inspired by this photo I saw on Facebook. Much like my trike flyover idea above (no matter how stupid it might sound), if you have ideas on solutions to this flooding problem or to any of our social issues, you should petition your government and tell them your ideas about it. The problem is redundant bureaucracy though, of course. I'm not really sure, like for that flood, if you're supposed to go to DPWH or maybe to the city planner or whatever. I heard it's the city planner's responsibility (no official confirmation on this though). So maybe if you have ideas on how we can solve the flooding problems, maybe try and contact them.

Or better yet, write about it on your blog, share it on your social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.   We've seen how powerful these tools are in changing governance and public policy. Maybe your idea will go viral. Maybe your idea will get noticed by our bureaucrats and politicians. The concept of "writing to your congressman" has changed. Right now, you can contact most of them on Facebook or Twitter and your message can be seen publicly if you wish.

What do you think? Me, I'm just a dude who wants a firetruck in his village.