Dear next president: How will you make the country’s roads safe?

Photo by Ace Esmeralda of Security Matters

Photo by Ace Esmeralda of Security Matters

By Dinna Louise C. Dayao

They were all in their teens. John Russel Garcia, John Paul Tena, Kirby Bokingo, Jaymee Gubaton, Bren Loren Calabines, and Rodalyn Bautista were graduating Grade 10 students.

They had their whole lives ahead of them: graduations, college, careers. But everything ended in a fiery crash on a road in Tagaytay in the wee hours of January 17, 2016.

It started as a joyride. According to news reports, the youngsters were in a car driven by Calabines, who had a student license. It was his father’s car; the boy reportedly took it without his parent’s permission. The car hit a concrete barrier and several trees before bursting into flames. All six teens died in the horrific crash.

Every hour, someone dies on our roads. Every day, 28 people don’t make it home alive. In a year, that adds up to 10,379 people—or about 188 busloads.

The high costs of road carnage

It’s about time that the CEO of our country made road safety a development priority. Road crashes take a heavy toll on our society and economy.

• Road crashes tip poor families into deeper poverty.

These families have less savings and assets to absorb the shock of having a family member killed or injured in a crash. A study showed that seven out of 10 poor families reported their income to have decreased after a road death. To cover the loss of income, six out of 10 poor households were forced to take a loan after a road death.

• Injuries from road crashes strain our public health system.

When the poor get hurt in a road crash, they seek medical attention in public hospitals. These injuries place a huge burden on health care services. In general, public hospitals in the Philippines shoulder an average of 25% to 75 percent of the victims’ total costs of medication and treatment.

• Road crashes drain a whopping ₱394.6 billion of our country’s GDP.

Ricardo Sigua heads the road safety research lab at the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies (UP NCTS). He estimated that 2.6 percent of our GDP is lost due to road crashes. In 2004, that loss amounted to ₱105.2 billion.
In 2015, the Philippines had an estimated GDP of ₱15.1 trillion. You do the math.

8 questions

Calling on the five candidates running for president! Please answer the following questions:

1. What infrastructure will you build to keep pedestrians safe?

Walking in Metro Manila is no walk in the park. The sidewalks are narrow. Vendors and motor vehicles often encroach on what little space there is. The footbridges are often steep, unfriendly, and inconveniently located.

As a result, walking in the megacity can be fatal. More than 57,877 persons on foot were injured or killed in Metro Manila from 2005 to 2015, said Thinking Machines. “Pedestrians made up 46.2 percent of Metro Manila’s 4,024 road fatalities since 2005,” said the data science consultancy. “That’s more than the number of drivers (39.8 percent) or passengers (14 percent) that were killed.”

Pedestiran walks along carriageway instead of footbridge. Photo by Lucille Sodipe.

Pedestiran walks along carriageway instead of footbridge. Photo by Lucille Sodipe.

2. Will you build protected bicycle lanes?

Pedal pushers in many parts of the country put up with dirty air, reckless drivers, and the lack of well-designed bicycle lanes. Yet they persist in biking because it cuts travel costs and times.

Protected bike lanes are physically separated lanes that are exclusively for people on bicycles. These lanes will keep them alive and make the roads safer for everyone. In addition, protected lanes are good for people, the planet, and profits. These lanes help make for fairer cities, too.

3. How will you make public transit safe?

Eight out of 10 people in Metro Manila ride buses, jeeps, taxis, and the trains. That figure includes children, the elderly, and persons with disability.

Yet public utility vehicles figure regularly in road crashes. According to a study from UP NCTS, the people who ride public buses are six times more at risk of being in a road crash than are private car passengers. Bus passengers are five times more likely to be in a crash than are riders of jeeps and UV express service vehicles.

4. How will you improve road safety laws and their enforcement?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified five key risk factors: speed; drinking and driving; motorcycle helmets; seatbelts and child restraints; and distracted driving. Well-designed measures that address these risks will make the roads safe.
5. How will you make motor vehicles safer?

It’s time for drivers to stop claiming that their vehicles “lost brakes.” All vehicles should pass basic safety standards. They should include safety features, such as seat belts, front-impact regulations, and electric stability control, said Etienne Krug, head of WHO’s disability, violence and injury prevention unit.

6. How will you enhance post-crash response?

Further enhancing trauma care systems will guarantee the prompt treatment of those with life-threatening injuries, said the WHO. The bereaved, on the other hand, will need emotional and legal support as they attend investigations and court hearings.

7. How will you ensure that the country meets its goal of halving road traffic fatalities by 2020?

In 2015, the Philippines joined member states of the United Nations in adopting the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Road safety targets are included in the SDGs:

“Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages:

3.6. By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents”
“Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable:
11.2. By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons”

8. What will you personally do to make our nation’s roads safe?

Road safety is everyone’s business. Still, you, as the country’s leader, will have a big role to play.

“Political will is needed at the highest level of government to ensure appropriate road safety legislation and stringent enforcement of laws by which we all need to abide,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. “If this cannot be ensured, families and communities will continue to grieve, and health systems will continue to bear the brunt of injury and disability due to road traffic crashes.”

#SafeRoadsPH

Take heart, dear next leader. Road crash injuries and deaths can be prevented.

And investments in road safety in developing countries, like the Philippines, can be very cost effective. According to a report from the Asian Development Bank, “some studies suggest that spending 10% of the current costs of road crashes on safety may prevent 70% of those costs in future.”

Just think: Spending 10 percent of the ₱394.6 billion lost from the country’s GDP due to road crashes may save 70 percent of that huge sum. Imagine investing ₱39.4 billion in life-saving laws and infrastructure. Picture all the lives that can be saved. And visualize all the schools, mass transit systems, parks, and feeding programs that can be funded with the billions of pesos saved.
Dear next president, what will you do to make #SafeRoadsPH a reality during your watch?

Dinna Louise C. Dayao (dinnadayao@gmail.com) is an independent writer and editor. She is one of the participants in the Road Safety Journalism Fellowship. The fellowship is organized by the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and Communication and in partnership with VERA Files.

The above article first appeared in Rappler.

Road safety journalism award launched

By Jake Soriano, VERA Files

Journalist and VERA Files trustee Ellen Tordesillas announced on April 12 the launch of a new award to honor the best student work on road safety issues.

Chit Estella

Chit Estella

The Chit Estella Road Safety Journalism Award, named in honor of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, will be given next year as a special category in the Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC).

PJRC is an annual event organized by the Journalism Department of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Mass Communication.

The new special award expands the current Chit Estella Memorial Awards for Journalism Research, given at the PJRC, for the best student work in journalism research, special projects, and investigative journalism.

“It will be given to the most outstanding research paper or in-depth report, multiple formats allowed, on road safety by journalism or communication students,” said Tordesillas, during the closing program of the 2016 PJRC.

“VERA Files is offering to cover the cash prize and the trophy for this award. This is in addition to the yearly support it extends to the [PJRC],” she added.

Estella-Simbulan, a professor at the UP Journalism Department and VERA Files trustee, was killed on May 13, 2011 in a road crash.

Road crashes are among the leading causes of deaths in the Philippines, said Tordesillas, quoting government figures.

“I don’t use the words ‘(road) accident’ as if yun ang tadhana ng buhay (it is due to fate), and there was nothing that could have prevented it,” explained Tordesillas.

“Road crashes are preventable. And media can help create an environment that would make our roads safe. One of that is to come out with good stories based on excellent research,” she said.

Students from the University of the Philippines and the Southern Luzon State University received this year’s Chit Estella Memorial Awards.

UP Diliman students Krixia Subingsubing and Ron Bautista receive their award for the investigative journalism category. Joining them are (from left) UP Diliman Prof. Evelyn Katigbak, UP Manila Prof. Roland Simbulan, and VERA Files’ Ellen Tordesillas. Photo courtesy of UP CMC Journalism Department

UP Diliman students Krixia Subingsubing and Ron Bautista receive their award for the investigative journalism category. Joining them are (from left) UP Diliman Prof. Evelyn Katigbak, UP Manila Prof. Roland Simbulan, and VERA Files’ Ellen Tordesillas. Photo courtesy of UP CMC Journalism Department


They are:

Amiel Jansen Demetrial of the Southern Luzon State University for “Terorista! Terorista? Ideological Construction of the Moro Muslim Identity in the Online Reports of the Mamasapano Clash and the Bangsamoro Basic Law” (journalism research category)
Regina Aquino, Jon Robin Bustamante, and Janelle Dilao of UP Diliman for “Six Feet Under” (special projects category)
Ron Bautista and Krixia Subingsubing of UP Diliman for “System Reboot: An Investigative Study on the Implementation of the eUP Project of the University of the Philippines System” (investigative journalism category)

“Chit’s lasting memory is her fierce independence,” said UP Professor Roland Simbulan, Estella-Simbulan’s husband, in his closing remarks.

He said he could trace Estella-Simbulan’s independence and courage “to her stint as student journalist of the Philippine Collegian during the Martial Law years.”

“In those days of martial rule, if you were caught working for the underground press you will not only be arrested but also tortured and even killed or become a ‘desaparecidos’ as many Filipinos experienced,” Simbulan said.

“There are still great risks in a free society, but the risks in a dictatorship are even greater, and graver. The only thing that made the Marcos dictatorship look good was the absence of a free press and the solid walls of a silenced press around it,” he said.

Road safety journalism award launched

By Jake Soriano, VERA Files

Journalist and VERA Files trustee Ellen Tordesillas announced on April 12 the launch of a new award to honor the best student work on road safety issues.

Chit Estella

Chit Estella

The Chit Estella Road Safety Journalism Award, named in honor of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, will be given next year as a special category in the Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC).

PJRC is an annual event organized by the Journalism Department of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Mass Communication.

The new special award expands the current Chit Estella Memorial Awards for Journalism Research, given at the PJRC, for the best student work in journalism research, special projects, and investigative journalism.

“It will be given to the most outstanding research paper or in-depth report, multiple formats allowed, on road safety by journalism or communication students,” said Tordesillas, during the closing program of the 2016 PJRC.

“VERA Files is offering to cover the cash prize and the trophy for this award. This is in addition to the yearly support it extends to the [PJRC],” she added.

Estella-Simbulan, a professor at the UP Journalism Department and VERA Files trustee, was killed on May 13, 2011 in a road crash.

Road crashes are among the leading causes of deaths in the Philippines, said Tordesillas, quoting government figures.

“I don’t use the words ‘(road) accident’ as if yun ang tadhana ng buhay (it is due to fate), and there was nothing that could have prevented it,” explained Tordesillas.

“Road crashes are preventable. And media can help create an environment that would make our roads safe. One of that is to come out with good stories based on excellent research,” she said.

Students from the University of the Philippines and the Southern Luzon State University received this year’s Chit Estella Memorial Awards.

UP Diliman students Krixia Subingsubing and Ron Bautista receive their award for the investigative journalism category. Joining them are (from left) UP Diliman Prof. Evelyn Katigbak, UP Manila Prof. Roland Simbulan, and VERA Files’ Ellen Tordesillas. Photo courtesy of UP CMC Journalism Department

UP Diliman students Krixia Subingsubing and Ron Bautista receive their award for the investigative journalism category. Joining them are (from left) UP Diliman Prof. Evelyn Katigbak, UP Manila Prof. Roland Simbulan, and VERA Files’ Ellen Tordesillas. Photo courtesy of UP CMC Journalism Department


They are:

Amiel Jansen Demetrial of the Southern Luzon State University for “Terorista! Terorista? Ideological Construction of the Moro Muslim Identity in the Online Reports of the Mamasapano Clash and the Bangsamoro Basic Law” (journalism research category)
Regina Aquino, Jon Robin Bustamante, and Janelle Dilao of UP Diliman for “Six Feet Under” (special projects category)
Ron Bautista and Krixia Subingsubing of UP Diliman for “System Reboot: An Investigative Study on the Implementation of the eUP Project of the University of the Philippines System” (investigative journalism category)

“Chit’s lasting memory is her fierce independence,” said UP Professor Roland Simbulan, Estella-Simbulan’s husband, in his closing remarks.

He said he could trace Estella-Simbulan’s independence and courage “to her stint as student journalist of the Philippine Collegian during the Martial Law years.”

“In those days of martial rule, if you were caught working for the underground press you will not only be arrested but also tortured and even killed or become a ‘desaparecidos’ as many Filipinos experienced,” Simbulan said.

“There are still great risks in a free society, but the risks in a dictatorship are even greater, and graver. The only thing that made the Marcos dictatorship look good was the absence of a free press and the solid walls of a silenced press around it,” he said.

Don’t forget ill persons who are not physically disabled

PWDs special registration. Photo by Mario Ignacio IV for VERA Files.

PWDs special registration. Photo by Mario Ignacio IV for VERA Files.

The law signed by President Aquino March 23 exempting persons with disabilities from the value-added tax is a whiff of balm in the current toxic (Philippines as money laundering center of the $81 million bank heist and the negative vibes of the election campaign) atmosphere.

The law, Republic Act No. 10754, which amends Republic Act No. 7277, otherwise known as the “Magna Carta for Persons with Disability”, exempts PWDs from the 12 percent VAT, on top of the 20 percent discount they are currently entitled to under the Magna Carta.

The discount applies to transportation fees, medical and laboratory charges, cost of medicines, admission fees in cinemas and other leisure and amusement places, and funeral and burial services.

The House bill was sponsored by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, by Sen. Sonny Angara.
The PWDs now enjoy the same privileges as senior citizens, an attribute of a compassionate society.

Another feature of R.A. 10754 is the incentives to PWD caregivers which was introduced by Sen. Ralph Recto, co-sponsor of the bill at the Senate.

In a press statement Recto said, “A child, parent, sibling, or a relative of up to fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity who is caring for or living with a PWD, who in turn is chiefly dependent on the relative and incapable of self-support, can claim additional tax exemption.”

“Kung kasama ang fourth civil degree of affinity, kasama dyan ang parent-in-law o biyenan ng taxpayer, hanggang first cousin-in-law,” he further explained.

The tax deduction of P25, 000 annually is the same as what is currently claimed by a parent of a child not over the age of 21.
“This is certainly not enough but this is significant because it breaks the longstanding embargo that carrying for a PWD cannot be claimed as a tax deduction,” Recto said.

Recto clarified though that this privilege cannot be enjoyed for the tax-filing deadline on April 15, as income tax returns will only cover income derived during the past year.

Recto urged the government particularly Social Services Dinky Soliman to immediately convene the committee that will draft the Implementing Rules and Regulations. “I hope this IRR will not move on crutches. Sana mabilis. Any delay in effect freezes the benefits,” he said.

A PWD-related issue that remains to be clarified is the automatic inclusion of persons suffering from chronic diseases in the PWD list.

An earlier article by Patrick Pascual for VERA Files underscored the problems encountered by persons suffering from a chronic disease but do not look physically ill. Many of them are denied discounts by drugstores and other establishments.

Lupus does not prevent them from enjoying life. 2015 Summer Outing. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Robles.

Lupus does not prevent them from enjoying life. 2015 Summer Outing. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Robles.

Republic Act 7277, the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons defines Disabled Persons as those “suffering from restriction or different abilities as a result of a mental, physical, or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.”

R.A. 7277 was amended by Republic ACT 9422 granting additional privileges and incentive to with PWDs.

It states that “Identification Cards shall be issued to any bonafide PWD with permanent disabilities due to any one or more of the following conditions: psychosocial, chronic illness, learning, mental, visual, and orthopedic, speech and hearing conditions.”
Chronic means a condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects. HIV is one example of chronic illness which also includes asthma, diabetes, cancer lupus, and many more.

Many persons who are ill with cancer o lupus do not manifest physical or mental impairment and there are offices of DSWDs that refuse to issue them PWD IDs. Some agree to fall under “mental” or “psychosocial” conditions just to be able to get PWD IDs.

That issue should be resolved with clarity but meanwhile, as Recto said, the additional tax exemption to PWDs and incentives to PWD caregivers should be implemented immediately.

My Christmas wish list

I have only three items in my Christmas wish list.

First, may the sick be healed. May they be given the strength to cope
with the trials they are going through.

Rachelle. So brave.

Rachelle. So brave.

Special mention in my list is the healing of my niece Rachelle who is
battling cancer. She has conquered cancer of the breast and she is now
battling tumor in her lungs. She is a very brave girl.

Another special mention is my boss, Malaya publisher Jake Macasaet who
suffered a stroke recently. Remarkably, he has recovered his speech
and is now back to his trademark “SOB”s against hypocrites.

He is undergoing daily physical therapy.

Included in my Christmas wish is patience and strength for their loved ones.
My second Christmas wish is for the Filipino people to find a leader
who is competent, not corrupt, and has a heart for the people
especially the poor.

May the decision of the Filipino people be carried out in the May
2016 elections. The person who would be proclaimed the next president
should be the genuine choice of the people.

Malaya Publisher Jake Macasaet three weeks after his stroke.

Malaya Publisher Jake Macasaet three weeks after his stroke.

Related to this, I wish that Sen. Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor
Rodrigo Duterte be included in the list that the people could choose
from. An election that limits that people’s choice by default is not
a truly free election.

My third wish is to win in the lotto. This is related to my first wish.
Unlike before when cancer was a death sentence, medicine research has
made remarkable advances in the treatment of cancer. The problem is
cost.

The cost of treatment is what will kill a poor patient.
***
I share the Christmas wish of Sen. Grace Poe for free Wi-Fi in every municipality across the country.

The internet can be a tool to shrink the wide gap between those in the developed and not-so-developed communities.

I’m currently in our barrio in Antique and I’m using a Globe pocket wifi. It’s a huge improvement from years past when I had to go to the capital town of San Jose , an hour away by public transport from out place, to send my columns by fax whenever I was on home visits.

The Filipino people should be the one to decide.

The Filipino people should be the one to decide.

But the speed is agonizingly slow. (Although the past days were not so bad compared to my last visit four months ago.) And quite expensive.

In batting for a free wifi in rural areas, Poe was thinking of the more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers who have to battle
loneliness abroad, especially during the Christmas season. A video call with their loved ones in the provinces would mean a lot.

She said she knows this having lived abroad for years.

“Dapat ay merong Wi-Fi zone para sa pamilya ng ating mga OFWs at para sa kahit sinong nangangailangan. Ito na lang ang koneksyon ninyo sa inyong mga mahal sa buhay, tapos mahal na, mabagal pa. Kaya nga po gusto ko talaga ang bawat munisipalidad ay magkaroon ng Wi-Fi zone,” Poe said.

Wi-Fi access, she said, will not only connect migrant families but also opens doors of opportunities for the unemployed and those in rural areas. The Internet has also been crucial in communications during disasters.

May her and our Christmas wish be granted.