Promote alternative means of transportation

We are glad to read in Sunday’s Inquirer that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will revive the Pasig River ferry as suggested in a recent column. As it will supply a new fleet of boats, the MMDA should make sure that the cabins are closed and air-conditioned so that passengers will not smell the stink of the river. It was this stink that, in the past, discouraged commuters from taking the ferry. So the new boats should be shallow draft so that they will not touch the bottom of the now shallow Pasig River. I rode many times in such a type of ferryboats at the Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Maybe MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino can send somebody, or go there himself, to take a look.

Another factor that discouraged commuters from taking the ferry was the long wait at the river terminals, so there should be enough boats for more frequent trips. While the boat trip itself was short, the long wait at the terminals made the passengers lose precious time.

The ferry won’t make much money at first—maybe even lose some—but the number of passengers will increase as commuters discover the fast, comfortable, cool trip up and down the Pasig River a much better alternative to riding in crowded buses and jeepneys crawling through traffic jams on land. For added comfort, the ferry can sell soft drinks and snacks on board.

On weekends, the ferry may extend its service to the lakeshore towns around Laguna Lake for holiday trippers. Better access to them will hasten the development of the lakeshore towns which are isolated most of the time in spite of their closeness to Metro Manila. Restaurants serving fish caught in the lake and other Rizal-Laguna delicacies will sprout. Soon souvenir shops selling, for instance, woodcarvings from Paete and lanzones during the lanzones season will follow. Los Baños has its famous buko  pie and fresh carabao milk.

We used to drive around the lakeshore towns of Rizal to visit the old churches and eat  kanduli,  hito,  plapla, and “usa” and “baboy damo”—although I know that hardly any deer or wild pigs can now be caught in the surrounding hills. What they are serving now are probably beef and pork from native black pigs. But no matter, the trips will still be enjoyable because of the beautiful, rustic countryside.

That’s another thing: Metro Manilans, trapped in the concrete jungle, long for the rustic countryside with the open space, wide fields, and bamboo-and-nipa houses. But they are fast disappearing in the Bulacan-Pampanga towns and in the Laguna-Cavite-Batangas towns traversed by the NLEx and SLEx, respectively. You see the fields as you speed along the highways, but you can’t get down there. When you stop in the towns, you are met by a concrete jungle similar to the one you fled from.

We also used to ride the Manila-Cavite ferry—when it was still operating—in the late afternoon or early evening just to savor fresh sea breeze while having ice-cold beer on board, and to look around Cavite City. We would take the same ferry on its trip back to Manila.

That ferry also ceased operations because of financial losses. But the government should revive and subsidize it because it would take a big load off the crowded Manila-Cavite highway—at least until MRT 3 is completed and goes operational.

In fact, traffic congestion to and from the towns along Manila Bay would ease if there were ferry services to these towns. For the same reason, traffic on MacArthur Highway would lessen if ferry services were made available to transport passengers between Bulacan-Pampanga and Metro Manila. Our old folk used the river and the sea to ship cargo and people from these provinces to Manila and its suburbs. Flat-bottomed boats called “casco” were poled down the river with loads of rice, salt, nipa shingles, bamboo and other products. Residents of river towns waited on the riverbanks to buy the goods from them.

We should continue to use our waterways to ease the traffic load on our few and narrow roads. We are an archipelago and we should use the water highways which need no periodic repairs like the streets. What’s more, because the sea is so big, there would be no traffic congestion on it as happens on land.

For this reason, the government should encourage a boatbuilding-and-repairing industry. Most of the boats we have now are small they could easily sink in rough seas. Provide boat builders with the knowhow and capital to build bigger boats.

Together with the ferryboats, we should increase the number of commuter trains around Metro Manila and suburbs. Let the Philippine National Railways earn more so it can improve the Luzon train system. In other countries, the railroad is the most important and cheapest means of transportation. We have neglected our railroad because we were seduced by the American car manufacturers to put our money in motor vehicles. Now we are reaping the whirlwind of that mistake.

Until the administration of President Diosdado Macapagal, the railroad operated efficiently from San Fernando, La Union, in the north to Legazpi, Albay, in the south. The Bicol Express, which took you in first-class coaches overnight from Manila to Legazpi, was famous then. When you woke up in the morning, Mayon Volcano greeted you through the train windows.

The trip to Pangasinan, Baguio and the Ilocos provinces was also fast and pleasant on board the train. It stopped at Damortis, La Union, where first-class buses were waiting to take passengers up Kennon Road to Baguio.

Now a car trip to Baguio takes at least five hours (it took only four hours or less in the old days). After you leave NLEx, the traffic jams begin.