Free Parking for Senior Citizens in Quezon City? Not Exactly Free at Trinoma

By and large, it seems that the senior citizen law has been more observed in compliance rather than in breach. This is not to say, however, that the whole picture looks good as there are still many deviations that go unnoticed ranging from outright defiance to creative avoidance of the law. The gray generation is not the most fightingest among the marginal groups of society and if those concerned would not complain vigorously enough, unscrupulous establishments would be more comfortable ignoring the law.

Except for the celebrated complaint of Atty. Romy Macalintal which was played up by the media fairly well, most seniors would not go beyond mouthing a verbal protest and actually put their words into action when confronted with some violation of their privileges under the senior citizens law. On the other hand, there are establishments that will deviate from the law when they can get away with it. They are not worried about or threatened with repercussions because people are generally not serious about filing a complaint and much more pursuing a case. The precedents are few and far between.  

Deviations in implementation can be done easily whenever benefits are extended to specific class or group of people through legislation especially when eligibility is subject to proof and not visually discernible, such as age.

The law took a long time to happen. Coming to age 60 used to be, and for some even up to now, dreaded, denied and kept secret, by women and men alike, not only for reason of vanity but also because at that age, a person is perceived, rather unfairly, to have lost capability and productivity. For that matter, it is the retirement age (in the Philippines) and subsequently, he is forced to retire. Retirement benefits, on the other hand, are subject to relentless dilution by employers determined to cut costs and improve their bottom line. The notion of retirees living off their retirement benefits for the rest of their life is just a mere illusion.

 

When the senior citizens law or RA 9944 was enacted, senior citizens gained a certain degree of respect, importance and, maybe, some level of security. Now there are some reasons to acknowledge, if not anticipate, being 60 if only to enjoy rights and privileges under the said law.

Some local government units have even gone beyond the benefits provided for under the senior citizens law. A good example is Quezon City which enacted on July 24, 2012 an ordinance granting free parking to Quezon City senior citizens in all QC establishments. A very laudable move considering the prevailing high cost of parking in urban centers.

The motherhood statement is “to establish the mechanism to maximize the benefits and welfare of senior citizens residing in Quezon City” and “to encourage commercial and business establishments in Quezon City to include as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility the support for senior citizens in their leisure and mobility pursuits”.

The fact is, not all establishments have been taking their corporate social responsibility to heart even with the urging of a law or ordinance even if, as in this case, the parking fees they do not collect from senior citizens are tax deductible.

One giant Quezon City establishment, Trinoma, seems to be dragging its feet in implementing the free parking of seniors with some forms of creative circumvention of the ordinance.

On many occasions, the establishment has refused to grant free parking privilege to senior citizens under dubious circumstances such as, when they allegedly run out of Trinoma’s own senior citizen parking cards, and when parking time exceeds four hours for which they charge senior citizens the full parking fee.

To avail of free parking privilege under the QC ordinance, Trinoma requires senior citizens to present to the car park security personnel upon entry to the Trinoma’s multi-level parking buildings their OSCA-issued Senior Citizen ID. Should a senior citizen fail to observe that procedure, the Senior Citizen ID would not be honored by the car park exit teller and the senior citizen would be required to pay the regular parking fee.

Aside from presenting his OSCA-issued ID, a senior citizen must secure Trinoma’s own Senior Parking Card from the security personnel manning the parking entrance and a machine-issued parking card. When the parking personnel had run out of Trinoma’s limited Senior Parking Cards, they would refuse to honor the senior citizen’s ID.

Putting their own house rules over and above the law, Trinoma appears to be circumventing the ordinance to avoid granting senior citizens free parking.

Is Trinoma exempted from the city ordinance?

Actually, the Quezon City ordinance provides for the exclusion of establishments under Rule III, Section 7 of the implementing rules and regulations (as amended) specifically for those using automated ticket machines and automatic card dispensers. But this is subject to the condition that they allocate a minimum of fifteen free parking slots, per level and per building for senior citizens which must also be located near, adjacent or visible from the point of entrance or ticket/card dispensing machine.

Since Trinoma does not have free parking slots for senior citizens located near, adjacent or visible from the point of entrance or ticket/card dispensing machine, the establishment is not exempt from the ordinance.

Another requirement that Trinoma must comply with to qualify for exemption is the provision of number of 15 designated senior citizen parking slots based on reflective signages with a 12" x 18" with green background with white text.

Further, the ordinance exempts all senior citizens of Quezon City from payment of initial rate of  parking fees for the first three hours. The initial rate is tantamount to the minimum rate of parking fees. In the case of Trinoma, the parking fee in the parking building is a flat rate of P50 regardless of number of hours. Hence, P50 is also the minimum rate. Then the applicable initial rate referred to by the ordinance for which the senior citizen is exempt from paying should be P50. Trinoma, however, charges senior citizens P50 when their parking time exceeded four hours. Now, under what basis are they requiring senior citizens to pay P50 when they exceed parking time of four hours? If the parking fees are not tiered based on number of hours, Trinoma seems to be violating the Quezon City ordinance by collecting P50 from senior citizens when their parking time exceeded four hours. At the very least, the value of of the parking fee for three hours should be discounted.

Let it be said that we have repeatedly brought to the attention of Trinoma’s parking personnel our reservations on their implementation of the ordinance. Our protestations, however, have always fallen on deaf ears.

Maybe the sanctions for violation of the ordinance are not enough deterrent. If committed by the cashier or boot attendant, violation carries penalties of imprisonment of 1-30 days or fine of P500 or both depending on the discretion of the court. If committed by the operator, manager or owner of the parking space, the penalties are imprisonment of 1-30 days or fine of P2,000 or both depending on the discretion of the court. 

What does the big picture on this matter show: when big establishments launch their business, they offer a lot of come-ons such as, free parking, low prices, etc., to attract people to come. Customers are welcome with open arms. When business had grown big and hugely profitable, they would start to jack up prices, charge parking fees, and even withhold the paltry entitlement of some people under the law. If that is not insatiable corporate greed, nobody knows what is. That’s how big business screws its own customers.

Alleviating Hunger Small by Small

Who would not want to start something with a big bang? Nowadays, it is the launching strategy that seems to be popular in any undertaking.  In modern warfare, it means that you must stun and awe the enemy with loud and overwhelming force to ensure a quick win. In business, an enterprise is launched with lots of luxury, hoopla and media coverage to intimidate the competition. When a new product is launched, celebrities and movie stars are usually engaged to endorse it in a big budget product presentation to create an impact on the market.  After all, the universe was created in a big bang. 

However, we know that any enterprise must be sustainable for it to grow and last for some time. If the expectations created during its launching were not met during the day-to-day life of the enterprise, then the big bang may end with a whimper.   

In fact, many ventures launched with a big bang failed and more startups which took off with simple soft launching succeeded. There is no guarantee that a high profile take off of an undertaking will fill the cash register or attract a large following. 

For that matter, a lofty social project need not involve grand media presentation to gain wide support. Such daunting mission as a feeding program will not immediately fly high even with a grand take off. Admittedly, the negative perception of such a project and the large resources needed to sustain it can discourage even the most dedicated. No single effort or single fund can fulfill this mission. It has to be a synergy among different sectors. Not doing anything on this problem, however, is like living a life for oneself alone.  A life without sharing is a life without contentment. No effort is too small for such a mission although it may only create a small impact on the big picture.

Nurturing initiatives over time so that they can start viral support is what it is all about, or what we may call, pardon the flawed expression, small by small strategy.

The Rotary Club of Diliman adheres to the belief that any initiative, no matter how small, can start a bandwagon by remaining steadfast, sustaining the initiative, word of mouth promotion, management of its own capability, linkages with institutions, individuals and other clubs with resources, nurturing its achievements, and letting initial  successes infect others to create an epidemic of support.

The Rotary Club of Diliman determined that a feeding program for malnourished school children is a good way to start a crusade against hunger. The project was soft launched by the Rotary Club Diliman chapter at Bago Bantay Elementary School, a public school in Quezon City, under the leadership of Club President Jeri Orlina and the service project committee of Lew Edwards. Club members take turns in serving in the project. Among the students of the school are children from the poorest of the poor families in the area.

The project was branded Busog Lusog Talino (BLT) feeding project and initially covers 40 children.  The project moniker simply means that children should be well-fed to be healthy and intelligent. Mens sana in corpore sano, so to speak. 

Upon proper profiling, 40 school children identified to be “severely wasted” in nutritional term and were selected for the feeding program.

Among them are cousins Jazmine and Mika (not their real names) who were children of families dwelling under the Culiat bridge, one of the high risk areas in Quezon City, particularly during typhoons and floods.

When typhoon Mario struck Metro Manila, the dwellings of Jazmine and Mika’s families under the bridge were flooded. No one would have survived the high water and strong current under that bridge if they had remained there. When Jazmine did not show up in her classes for eight days after the typhoon, Lew Edwards feared that something happened to her. Later, he learned that they had evacuated to safer grounds during the typhoon. She managed to get back to school after a long absence. 

Lew’s inquiry also disclosed that the reason why she was not regularly going to school was that she had been accompanying her father at night rummaging garbage dumps for recyclable materials (or kalakal, a newly-coined Tagalog term) that they can sell to junkyards. She was also selling sampaguita flowers to motorists at traffic stops and road intersections allegedly upon instruction of her mother to augment their family income. Stories of children under the same circumstances are common and too many to be ignored.

Although the project did not start with a big bang, word of mouth started to attract participation from as far as Schurr High School in Los Angeles California which donated P34,718.07 (peso equivalent of their US$ donation).  Members of Rotary Club of Diliman were immediately convinced and shelled out contributions for the project in various amounts up to as high as the P10,000.00 from past President Elmer Magnate. The needed kitchen equipment and cooking wares were readily bankrolled by some Rotary members without hesitation. One example of effective linkaging with other institutions resulted in the participation of the Red Cross to this project through Rotary’s Past District Governor, Hermy Jarin. Red Cross has pledged to provide kits for the 134 children containing blankets, towels, toiletries, etc.

Although this project so far may not have the makings of a big bang, the real big bang is happening in the hearts of people who have readily committed to support this project. The ultimate objective, of course, is for the initiative to be replicated by others in as many areas of the country.

Macroscoping the Traffic Problem

Nobody has a monopoly of wisdom on the traffic problem of Metro Manila. Anyone who claims that he can solve the problem is most likely out of his mind, a drunk, a wannabe Tuesday morning quarterback, or a re-electionist politician.

It’s good enough that every Juan has a 10 cents’ worth of opinion on the problem. It goes to show that people acknowledge and own this problem, understand a bit of the problem and have some ideas on the solution it entails.

Knee-jerk Reactions and Band-aid Solutions

Just as traffic prevents us from getting to where we want to go at the time we need to be there, the current efforts to solve the problem will not get us anywhere near the end of the problem. Not in the near future. The problem will get worse before it gets better. This is for as long as we lose sight of the forest for the trees.  The current efforts focus on the micro side of the issue, that is, day-to-day traffic management, but miss the big picture. What we get are only knee-jerk reactions and band-aid solutions.  This is a classic case of attempting to solve a problem that begs a long term solution with short-term fixes.

Too Much Vehicles and Not Enough Roads

At the risk of being accused of trivializing the issue, we have to restate that our traffic woes are essentially brought about by “too much vehicles and not enough roads”. This brings us to a point that a Grade 4 student can easily understand. Our options are: control the trips of vehicles or build more roads and/or mass transport systems.

Reduce Vehicles or Build Mass Transport Systems

Controlling the trips of vehicles or reducing vehicles plying the streets through number coding and truck ban have been tried in a variety of forms but hardly improved the situation. Rather than solve the problem, this approach creates more problems. 

Number coding merely increased car sales as more people bought a second car that they can use on days they cannot use their first car and on other days (not covered by its own number coding) as well. Thus, the number coding system actually multiplied the volume of vehicles on the roads and did not improve traffic at all.

On the other hand, the truck ban is equally an ill-conceived solution. Banning from the streets trucks that haul goods in and out of the country is counter-productive and adversely impacts the economy. Instead of giving priority to the sectors that drive up economic growth, their right and freedom to use the roads, built from taxes we all pay, are being restricted congesting the ports and delaying the movement of cargoes (including domestic goods and exports and imports). As if adding insult to injury, the current proposal is to allow trucks in the streets during unholy hours of the day only (e.g. 12MN to 4AM). Are we not shooting ourselves in the foot?

That the local governments have joined the fray did not help at all as it opened the floodgates of parochial concerns side by side with national interests.  The LGUs are understood to be beholden to adopt populist policies that cater to the convenience of their constituents which favor the reduction of the volume of vehicles plying their turf.  Now, politicians have further muddled the situation.  

Who Should be Blamed for the Traffic Mess

By the way, who are most responsible for clogging the roads?  A debate on this question at the wrong place can spark a riot. Here’s an overview of what’s going on.

Private vehicles, which is a beneficiary of the truck ban, consist the highest number of road users (about 240,000 vehicles on a given day in EDSA) carrying mostly a single person. Private vehicles are now the target of a new proposal to ban them in EDSA and herd them to the side streets from 6-9AM. Another variant of band-aid solutions that will not really work.

People do not drive to go somewhere because they have a car but because they have no alternative. Driving own car is very heavy on the pocketbook at today’s gas prices and snail-paced traffic. If there’s an adequate and reliable mass transport system, car owners would rather keep their cars in the garage or in a park-and-ride facility and take the train or a bus. As it is right now, we do not see that happening because the lines of commuters waiting for a ride in MRT major stations during rush hours are more than a kilometer long single file.

 

Public utility buses take the blame for causing the worst accidents and traffic log jams. There are about 14,000 buses only in EDSA. The problem with buses is that they stop at will to pick up and unload passengers in any part of the road: left, right or even center.  When they do pull over at bus stops, they hug the space for as long as they want, rear protruding out, stalling and blocking other buses to wait for passengers. They vie for less passengers now, hence, the competition among buses has become so stiff and cut-throat, thanks also to the boundary system that still persists to this day. When buses got involved in an accident, the enormous gridlock could affect the whole metropolis. Although the problems they cause may be real, they cannot be solved by banning buses from the roads. The players can all use discipline here: operators, drivers, traffic enforcers, passengers.

The jeepney remains as a picturesque icon of the Filipino culture and ingenuity. As public utility vehicles, however, jeepneys have become more of a nuisance and have been blamed for the traffic woes on the roads when driven by undisciplined drivers. Sturdy as they are, jeepneys swerve and snake in all lanes of the roads to compete for passengers and oftentimes cause accidents and traffic gridlocks. Jeepney drivers are some of the most reckless drivers on the road because they can do that and get away with it. The lax enforcement of traffic regulations can be the real culprit here. Filipino drivers drive properly in places where traffic enforcement is known to be strict.        

The lumbering trucks/haulers which carry cargoes to and from the ports are the favorite whipping boys and escape goats on traffic problems. Maybe because they are big and highly visible and occupy more road space and move slower. It’s actually a catch 22 situation, they are damned when they move slow but moving fast they can cause accidents. So many incidents involving container van falling off their trailer have been recorded. Whenever a hauler gets into an accident or suffer breakdown, traffic would stand still for hours on end throughout the metropolis.

The other culprits: tricycles, pedicabs, motorcycles, kuligligs, and other Filipino inventions, are like mosquitoes in your bedroom. They are everywhere and you cannot drive them out: in highways, main roads, major city streets, or where they should not be, posing risks for accident and causing traffic slowdown. They do frustrating things with impunity such as, going counter flow, hugging the speed lanes, passing at your blind side, particularly when traffic is heavy. The scenario portrays the kind of anarchy and lawlessness obtaining in our streets.

Recycled Solutions

The authorities have tried so many strategies, including color coding, number coding, truck ban, elimination of rotundas, restoration of rotundas through U-turn slots, one-way traffic routes, alternating push-pull traffic flow, river transport, etc. The current efforts are not new but just variants of previously tried and failed attempts to solve the problem.

Real Solutions

No matter how valiant the current efforts are, they are bound to fail because the real solutions are infrastructure-based and are not being given priority: efficient and reliable mass transport system, new circumferential and by-pass roads, skyways, subways, no-nonsense road maintenance, waterways and drainage cleanup, flood prevention, and (pardon me for including this) outward economic development policies which can encourage reverse migration to the provinces.

To begin with, an adequate and reliable mass transport system can substantially ease traffic flow even before new roads are built. The dream is for the time to come when private motorists would voluntarily decide to take the train instead of using their cars because it would be more convenient, faster and reliable, not to mention the big gas money they would save.

  

Back to Square One

Building more infrastructures has been in the government’s agenda but has progressed very poorly beyond the lip service of government leaders. Hence, the solution could not catch up with the problem. The problem has already morphed to a bigger monster, when the solution arrives. The desired reliable mass transport system (e.g. light rail train) adequate to service the current volume of commuters as well as encourage people driving their car to work, school and elsewhere to take the train instead has remained a wistful dream. Not only has the traffic problem gotten worse faster than the infrastructures could be built, the existing light rail trains have become unreliable due to maintenance neglect. And then we hear that this is so because they have become obsolete and need to be totally replaced. What does that make of our situation? Back to square one!                                                                        
     

The Root of the Problem

The root of the traffic problem is presidential. Under our system, there is no blueprint and continuity for long term government projects, particularly on infrastructure development, that an incoming president must implement when he takes over. Unlike in the parliamentary system of government where bureaucracy continues to function as leaders come and go, our system is largely dependent on the agenda of the sitting president. Under the current administration, infrastructures sprung to a full stop when the president assumed office. Even as the six-year term of a president is not enough to totally bridge the gap in infrastructures, the current president did not hit the ground running when the starting gun sounded. His first couple of years were devoted to hedging, blaming the past and discontinuing projects already in the pipeline. Lesson learned is that cramming on infrastructures towards the end of the administration is really bad timing as a president’s popularity traditionally plummets near the end of his term. Needless to mention that long term projects cannot be completed within two years. Not only that. He is going to be busy not only in warding off attempts to show him as a lame duck but also in playing his part in the political efforts to ensure that his candidate succeeds him. Or to find a way to extend his term.