The reason Baguio locals are divided on so many of the Magalong administration’s big-ticket projects is that it seems so much more arcane and mystic than it has to be. In part, anyway—there are many other grievances concerning these projects, but let us hone in on this one.
So much of the decision-making process for these major projects has largely happened behind closed doors, meetings that the populace was informed of in reports and hardly given the power to influence. There is a mandatory public consultation phase, but given how scant and few they are and how late they are in the process, it feels as if they are only there for show.
This sentiment, you can see it if you browse through the comments on any report on these projects on social media—the latest being the smart mobility project. The pervading sentiment that these consultations are held for formality’s sake and do not actually have any effect on the final result seems accurate. Swimming upstream against a relentless current in an inevitable singularity.
Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.
Well, to our knowledge, it isn’t, as much as it favors the original proponents, but it is also very easy to see why there is a sentiment of futility and formality. Consider how little we actually know about what isn’t in the reports, and given that the reports are made by people essentially pitching their project to gain our mass approval, it is a given that the report will be as flattering as possible.
Recently, there have been complaints to this effect; people who have joined the public consultations claim that the numbers shown are derived off of unknown data, essentially making them unreliable—what if the congestion fee proposed, for instance, was jacked up from the actual (fair) estimates?
The public asks for much, but one of the requests should not even be requested—people are requesting that the basis for all of these numbers, these projections, these proposed fees be revealed in full, so the populace may freely scrutinize everything for the fairest, most accurate judgment possible.
The numbers, what do they mean? What are they based on? Out of which orifice did the congestion fee of more than two hundred whole pesos come, and what produced it?
(I know that they said this was just a theoretical figure, but the point stands—if it had basis, it should be explained, and if it has no basis, it should be junked.)
Is it really so much to ask that we get full transparency for a project that may very well influence the lifestyle of the community at large for years to come? Sometimes it feels as if it is that, the way these requests are responded to, but be assured, dear lone reader—it is not! It is the bare minimum. You are justified to ask for these things. You are empowered to ask for these things; it’s your prerogative.
Keep asking, keep demanding even if sometimes it feels as if punching a boulder, a master of the Sanchin unbreaking. Even granite will eventually break.
