An Open Letter To The DOTC Secretary

This is the reason why I support the stand of Pres. Rody Duterte when he considered Metro Manila traffic as a crisis, since it is not only costing us mental stress, but also emotional, physical, and financial stress.

I am not only expressing my frustration towards the situation, but I want to be a part of the solution.

I am writing this open letter to give a proposal in order to help ease the traffic situation in the Philippines.

For my proposal, let me give an illustration of a funnel:

As we know, a funnel facilitates the flow of fluid into a container. However, when too much water is put into the funnel much too fast, the water will overflow. At first thought, the solution may be to simply increase the width of the funnel. But this cannot be done easily.

The traffic situation in our country is exactly like this, an illustration of a funnel. We have far too many cars on our roads and to widen or add more streets along EDSA, for example, is not something that can be done easily and immediately.

The solution that I’m proposing is to decrease the flow of the water by decreasing the amount of the water being poured into the funnel. Relating this to our traffic situation, we can decrease the volume of cars out in the streets, not just by removing colorum or old cars, but by making sure that not everyone goes to work and goes home all at the same time.

Allow me to propose to you the 6-8-10 scheme.

The students can go to school at 6 AM (and go home at 3 PM), the private organizations and companies can go to work at 8 AM (and go home at 5 PM), and the government organizations can go to work at 10 AM (and go home at 7 PM).

In this manner, we can disperse the people travelling every single day.

This proposal is based on my personal observation that when it’s summer vacation, traffic is relatively light. But when everyone – from employees to students – all go to work and to school all at the same time, the traffic is very heavy.

Correct me If I am wrong with this premise, the good thing about this scheme is that DOTC doesn’t need a congressional ruling for this to be implemented, but only an executive order, which our President can issue.

Maybe a lot of people now think that the traffic situation in the Philippines is hopeless or that it’s not worth it anymore to think of any solutions to this problem. But I do believe that we should never lose hope, especially if it is about our country. With unity and discipline, I do believe that we can change our situation and achieve great things.

What do you think of this proposal and idea?
If you have better ideas, please share it also, so I can compile all ideas and share it with Sec. Tugade & Pres. Duterte.

I am very hopeful with the incoming administration because I know that “Change is, indeed, coming!”