OO NGA NAMAN: Jeepney and other utility drivers seem to be getting a raw deal on fare discounts without knowing it. Listen to engineer Ramon Ramirez talk about a mandate of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001:

“The Epira requires that those they call the ‘lifeliners’ who use 100 kilowatt-hour or less of electricity be given discounts ranging from 20 to 50 percent by distribution utilities such as Visayan Electric and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

“The same law allows the DUs to promptly recover the cost of the discounts by collecting from consumers using more than 100 kwh a charge listed in our electric bills as ‘lifeline rate subsidy.’ It is a discount at no cost to the DUs.

“Now, look at this daily scene:  The government through the LTFRB requires jeepney drivers to give a 20-percent discount in fare to senior citizens and students, who compose half of their passengers on a school day.

“But in contrast to the good fortune of the owners of the giant DUs in their air-conditioned rooms, the hard-working jeepney drivers, who daily brave the dust and the heat of Manila streets, are made to absorb the cost of the discount.

“The drivers effectively give subsidy to the students and the senior citizens — yet the drivers are not rich men.”

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RESURRECTED: The usual critics and sleuths may want to look again into the roads and bridges program of President Gloria Arroyo now that it was suddenly resurrected as a gigantic P40-bllion program stretching beyond the end of her term in 2010.

The second part of the bridges program is reportedly scheduled to be taken up today by the Infrastructure Coordinating Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-ICC) for the final push.

The first part of the bridges program, also financed from a loan from the French government, carries a cost tag of Euro160 million or around P11 billion. It has been assigned to the Department of Public Works and Highways to carry out.

The second part, also to be financed from the French loan, costs Euro240 million or some P16.5 billion. The Department of Agrarian Reform is tasked to implement it.

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SECRECY?: But while the DPWH and the DAR are supposed to be the main implementing agencies, they are reportedly not part of the technical preparation and approval process.

In the case of the DPWH, only the office of Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane and an Executive Director reporting directly to Malacanang have access to the paperwork. Why all that secrecy?

Technicians whom I have consulted said the DPWH, as now organized and funded, would not be able to absorb and carry the gigantic workload of the new bridges program, which is so ambitious that its time frame has to be stretched beyond Ms Arroyo’s term.

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FRENCH BID: This is the first project-assistance adventure of such magnitude of the French government into the constantly shifting Philippine political setting.

The French will be stepping into a similar bridges program financed by a loan from the United Kingdom and carried out through the British firm Mabey & Johnson.

The French firm taking over was identified as Matierre, with address at 7 Place de la Republique, 15130 Arpajon-sur Cere. The medium-size family-run company has designed what it calls the “Unibridge” whose suitability to Philippine conditions has not been verified.

The contract of Mabey & Johnson with its rickety Bailey-type bridges was terminated by the DPWH last year.  The reasons given for termination were minor and did not constitute any major breach of contract.

The UK program was dropped amid reports that a concerned British government was investigating alleged overpricing and the giving of illicit commissions.

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PALACE LINKS: A common denominator of the terminated UK and the upcoming French programs is a Filipino middleman who has vital connections to Malacanang.  The same operator who facilitated the UK program is reportedly also working on the French project.

The financing source is an export credit under COFACE with the French bank Paripas. Direct negotiations for the pertinent executive agreement bypassed the usual channels.

The portion assigned to the DPWH was approved by the NEDA board last June 4. Two days later, the Supply and Service Contract was signed by Ebdane on June 6. I was told the Loan Agreement would be ready within two months.

The project assigned to DAR is scheduled for ICC/CABCOM approval today, unless media disclosures such as this prompt a review.

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OTHER PROJECTS: In her announcement days ago, President Arroyo mentioned a P28.29-billion Road Enhancement and Asset Preservation Management Program (REAPMP) to be carried out by the DPWH. She did not mention the DAR project.

She also cited the P2.12-billion Flood and Hazard Mitigation Component of the Bicol River Basin and Watershed Management Project (BRBWMP) to be undertaken by the DPWH and the Office of the Civil Defense, the Mines and Geosciences Board and the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

“These road and bridges programs plus the flood and hazard mitigation projects for Bicol are certain to boost the economic development for the areas where they will be implemented,” she said. “I expect full cooperation and speedy implementation from the DPWH and other agencies so our people can enjoy the benefits soonest.”