Chaos expected when MMDA insists on bus terminal relocation

Sources say MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino is a stubborn man. Like a true-blue peninsulares, Tolentino imposes his own will against any other, alienating well-meaning groups whose only concern is to stabilize the present chaos along EDSA. Tolentino acts like an ordinary mayor.

This explains why I shudder at the very thought that Tolentino wants his hair-brained traffic scheme tested by August 6, Tuesday. By next week, Tolentino's Uniwide South terminal will be opened to public use. Provincial buses coming from Cavite will be constrained to stop at this terminal, pay as much as 500 per 25 minutes of use, and thereby burden people with cargoes.

Imagine the humonguous traffic such a scheme will do in a very small area such as Coastal Road and Roxas boulevard. Since cars will now converge in this one area, this will surely create a bottle neck. As any other motorist know, any bottleneck in any spot in the Metro will surely cause traffic along the road where the bottleneck is at. This bottleneck will be permanent. Imagine how this scheme will cause along Roxas Boulevard where trucks use too.

I shudder at the thought of this implemented along EDSA.

EXPOSE! MMDA TO COLLECT 1.8 BILLION PESOS AS TERMINAL FEE FOR PROVL BUSES. WHO BENEFITS FROM OUR TRAFFIC MISERY?

The bus terminal relocation plan of the MMDA may look innocent and note-worthy. Behind the facade however, is a dastardly plan by the agency and several mall owners to squeeze more money from commuters and legitimate tax payers.

MMDA chair Francis Tolentino should be forthright with us and tell us---who will benefit more from this scheme of theirs---the commuters or mall owners? Government is spending close to 1.3 billion pesos for these terminals. These terminals, mind you, are part of a bigger shopping mall complex run by the Sys of SM, the Gokongweis of Robinson's Mall, and of course, the Gotianuns of Filinvest, not to mention, the owners of Uniwide Sales whose jurassic shopping mall along Coastal Road is being converted into a bus terminal for commuters from Cavite.

Tolentino should reveal how much money did they fork out to build these terminals? Where did all those monies go? 

MMDA and the mall owners plan to get 350 pesos per bus per parking. That's 2.450 million pesos per hour's worth of fees to be collected, if all 7,000 provincial buses go to these terminals. Since these buses only use these terminals at least twice, MMDA and terminal owners will earn around 5 million pesos per day.

In a month's time, 150 million pesos worth of fees. In a year's time, 1.8 billion pesos will be collected from bus companies by the MMDA and mall developers.

These fees will definitely be shouldered by the commuters as a pass-on. Hence, expect a bus fare hike as soon as the MMDA implements this bus terminal relocation plan.

Who benefits? It will be the mall owners who will reap the benefits because they will not just earn from a terrific surge of foot traffic into their malls, they will also be compensated from the fees. 

And to think that only 6% of all vehicular traffic that uses EDSA are provincial buses. 

For the sake of lowering EDSA traffic by 6%, we, the commuters, will be suffering from higher bus fares caused by these terminal fees.