Serious accidents involving buses are becoming more frequent on the EDSA highway, which is so traffic-congested that there supposedly is no room for vehicles to exceed the speed limit. Yet buses do exceed the speed limit and, because of their size and speed, accidents involving them are often fatal to some passengers and cause serious injuries to others.

Why do bus drivers drive recklessly and too fast? Because of the ?boundary? system that rules the transport system in the Philippines. Drivers and conductors of buses, jeepneys and taxicabs are not paid regular salaries. They pay the owner of the vehicle a boundary (P12,000 for buses, less for jeepneys and taxicabs) for a 12-hour use of the vehicle. Whatever they earn above the boundary, plus the cost of fuel, is their take-home pay. If they take it easy, they take home no extra earnings for 12 hours of work. That is why public utility vehicles race with one another scrambling for passengers. That is why our transport system is so chaotic.

The boundary system is advantageous to the vehicle owner. He just sits on his ass at home and waits for the driver to come back at the end of the working day to hand him the boundary. He doesn?t pay any social security premium for the driver and conductor. There is no employer-employee relation between them. The vehicle owner can be compared to a landlord who rents his vehicle to the driver/conductor.

There would be fewer accidents and the transport sector would be more orderly if the system is changed. Make the bus, jeepney and cab owners pay their drivers/conductors regular salaries. The driver would not drive recklessly because he is assured of a salary. What?s more, the owner can dispatch his vehicles at regular intervals so that they won?t be running half-empty, thus saving fuel.

In other countries, you can tell the time by the arrival and departure of buses. They have strict schedules. If you miss a bus, you know that at such a time, there would be another one coming along. That is because their bus system is controlled by the government.

Not in the Philippines. Here anarchy reigns; it?s every man for himself. Here, anybody who can buy a bus, a jeepney, or a taxicab can get a franchise from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and ply the crowded streets of Metro Manila. Free enterprise, they say. We have no free enterprise in the cement, oil and pharmaceutical industries (they are run by cartels), but there is free enterprise where there should be government control: the transport sector. In almost all other cities, the government runs the city transport system. Not in the Philippines.

Stand on EDSA and watch the bumper-to-bumper buses, all of them half-empty even during the rush hour. This can only mean that there are too many of them on EDSA. But the drivers are forced to run anyway for otherwise they would not make the boundary. Government transport officials can see this if only they would get out of their comfortable air-conditioned offices, and do something to correct the situation. But it is so much easier for them to do nothing.

If the buses are running half-empty, bus companies would start losing money and close shop. But why do they continue, and even seem to get more numerous?

Because of the boundary system. The bus owner gets his P12,000 whether or not there are passengers. It is the drivers and conductors who get the short end of the bargain.

If the drivers and conductors do not earn enough, why do they continue? Because it is the only job they know. And there is one other thing the LTFRB should realize: If the drivers/conductors continue despite the dearth of passengers, it can mean only that they are overcharging their passengers. The few passengers in the buses are paying for all those empty seats! How else can the buses continue to make good business?

The LTFRB sets the fares after hearings and studies of what rate is fair. Alas, it has been remiss in its job of protecting passengers. Many different persons have headed the LTFRB, but through the years the bus and jeepney associations have gotten what they wanted from it. It is as if they have a hold on their officials. What could be their secret?

Aren?t there too many buses on Edsa? Has not the LTFRB issued too many franchises? If you ask the LTFRB, it will answer with statistics: Edsa needs so many buses and only so many franchises have been issued.

Yet your eyes are not deceiving you. There are indeed so many buses running empty on Edsa. But LTFRB officials would rather believe their papers instead of their eyes.

If only so many franchises have been issued, then many of those buses must be colorums. In that case, what is the LTFRB and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) doing? If you go to the provinces, buses are few and far between. They are all overloaded, with passengers riding even on the roof. Why don?t the ?colorum? [unregistered] buses ply in the provinces where they are more needed? Why do they insist on running half-empty in Metro Manila and violating the law?

The answer can only be because they make more money here. And the only way they can make more money is to overcharge their few passengers. Doesn?t the LTFRB realize this?

The price of fuel has already gone down drastically but transportation fares have not gone down. The LTFRB reduced fares only starting yesterday. But the bus and jeepney associations have asked for a postponement, using one pretext or another. And the LTFRB granted the postponement. Why? For every day of delay, commuters are being overcharged hundreds of thousands of pesos.

LTFRB, wake up!