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Institutional Arrangement: A Challenge in The Philippine Transport System

The document discusses challenges facing the Philippine transportation system. It notes that the system's poor performance in global rankings is primarily due to weak governance and institutional capacity among transport agencies. There is a lack of coordination between agencies and integrated long-term planning. Political pressures have undermined project design and implementation. To address these challenges, the document argues that the Philippines needs to establish consistent transport policies, develop an integrated coordinated network, and ensure transport agencies effectively plan, implement and manage policies through clear roles and long-term planning.

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124 views4 pages

Institutional Arrangement: A Challenge in The Philippine Transport System

The document discusses challenges facing the Philippine transportation system. It notes that the system's poor performance in global rankings is primarily due to weak governance and institutional capacity among transport agencies. There is a lack of coordination between agencies and integrated long-term planning. Political pressures have undermined project design and implementation. To address these challenges, the document argues that the Philippines needs to establish consistent transport policies, develop an integrated coordinated network, and ensure transport agencies effectively plan, implement and manage policies through clear roles and long-term planning.

Uploaded by

jefrey
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JEFREY A.

DE LEON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING


BSCE V-A ACTIVITY 1

“Institutional Arrangement: A Challenge in the Philippine Transport System”

It is undeniable that transport is a not a simple system but rather a complex one. It is
mainly composed of the infrastructure itself, logistics and most importantly, the information
system that manages and leads the actual movement of vehicles. Moreover, this transport
system has an international dimension. This means that transportation system varies from
country to country. Transportation system of the Philippines might be the same or different to
that of other countries. Ultimately, countries also diverge in their ways and strategies in
dealing with transport problems. These diversities are related to different factors including
the differences in institutional arrangements.

In general context, institutional arrangements are understood as a set of agreements


on the separation of the respective responsibilities of institutions involved in the collection,
compilation and dissemination of data pertaining to a given statistical domain. To meet the
needs of users, follow quality standards and compile and disseminate information in the
most efficient way is the main goal of these arrangements. The scope of institutional
agreements can range from determining the complete process of statistical production and
dissemination to regulating certain parts of that process.

Institutional arrangements can be best demonstrated in the current transportation


system in USA and in Europe. There are fundamental institutional reasons why in Europe,
rail is important for passenger transport but unimportant for freight transport, whereas it is
just the other way around for the USA. The roles assumed by the public and the private
sectors vary considerably among countries in general, and between Europe and the USA in
particular.

Many studies suggest that it is very important to have a consistent transport policy,
plans, and programs and there must be coordination of action among the people involves in
such planning. In this regard, institutional arrangement plays an important role in addressing
this concern. In the absence of an institutional mechanism, typically transport development
decisions, planning and policy formulation, and coordination of actions between responsible
agencies are undertaken within a setting which is deficient to address the consistency of
policies.

In the context of the Philippine Transport system, it can be seen that our system is
continuously facing challenges and problems throughout the years. One great support to this
claim is the country’s ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness
JEFREY A. DE LEON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
BSCE V-A ACTIVITY 1

Report 2012–2013. The Philippines was ranked 87th of the 144 countries surveyed for
quality of roads, 94th for railroads, 112th for airports, and 120 th for port infrastructure.
Because of this poor performance in the transport sector, it becomes a perception that the
Philippines is not a good investment location due to the loss of economic opportunities,
increased pollution, and decreased productivity caused by poor transport infrastructure.

This massive challenge in our transport sector is primarily caused by weak sector
governance and institutional capacity. Based on reports and studies, the capacity of
transport agencies in the Philippines to undertake procurement, financial management,
internal audit, and quality control continues to be weak. In fact, although the DPWH received
a substantial increase in its budget in 2007, it only managed to disburse 66% of its available
budget, despite extensive demands on that budget in terms of proposed capital and
recurrent expenditures. This was due to deficiencies in financial management and
procurement procedures.

A survey of more than 2,800 DPWH projects in 2006 showed that 353 (12.5%) had
major defects. While steps have been taken to improve project supervision, the overall
quality of projects is still poor. In addition, as reported by Bantay Lansangan, a road
stakeholder partnership, there is a common perception that procurement procedures in the
DPWH suffer from a lack of transparency and widespread corruption.

It can also be observed that technical capacity in planning, intermodal integration,


project appraisal, and monitoring of different agencies is also insufficient. Although the
DPWH is now developing information technology enabled planning and programming
systems with the support of Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, it has not yet
been able to take full advantage of them. The technical and financial capacity of the local
government units responsible for the development and management of the local road
network and other components of the country’s transport infrastructure is still considered as
inadequate.

As I mentioned, It is very essential that there is a coordination of action between the


transport agencies and with the agencies responsible for economic sectors. At this point, it is
still believe that such coordination is still lacking among the transport agencies in our
country. In addition, the links between plans prepared by the DPWH and the Department of
Transportation and Communications and regional development plans are also generally
weak. This lack of effective planning and implementation in the agencies and the local
government units can be compounded by the effects of local political pressures. Political
pressures of this type lead to the identification of investment projects becoming politicized
JEFREY A. DE LEON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
BSCE V-A ACTIVITY 1

and nontransparent, which can undermine the integrity of the design, procurement, and
implementation processes. This is evident here in the province and in the country as a
whole. The distortion of the functional classification system for roads, through the
redesignation of local roads as national roads to enable the DPWH to take over
responsibility for maintenance, is largely a consequence of this.

It is agreeable that we have wide range of well-developed regulations and policies


that governs our transport sector here in the Philippines. However, implementations of such
regulations and policies are still often weak. This ultimately limits the intended positive
impact of these policies on the performances of our transport system.

With the above mentioned information, it can be said that the challenge that our
transport system is facing here in the Philippines, is already in its severe state. It is therefore
a must that this challenge is addressed by the government through our transport sector
agencies.

To establish a consistent transport policy and to effectively manage and implement


these policies is what our transport sector should be focusing on to address this challenge.
Moreover, ensuring a development of an integrated and a coordinated transport network will
help constructively in solving this problem in weak institutional agreements or policies. As a
major transport sector agency, DPWH must also have a long term transport plan to guide the
restructuring of our transport system. By clearly laying out the government’s policies in
relation to all aspects of sector development, the plan would reduce uncertainty about
government decisions and lend predictability and consistency, thereby enhancing
accountability. The roles of both national and local entities in the development and
management of the transport system must also be cleared to avoid confusion and
incoordination among them. This long term plan can also provide strong linkages between
the planning and budgeting processes. Ultimately, this will ensure the proper allocation of
resources within the transport sector and that transportation projects will be effectively
manage by those in authority.

Transportation system is indeed complex and it might continue to be more complex


over time. This is a main reason, why we must have strategies on how to cope up with this
complexity and to address possible challenges that might affect our transport sector.
Ultimately, to effectively plan, implement and manage our transport policies, can contribute
meaningfully in achieving economic and global development.
JEFREY A. DE LEON TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
BSCE V-A ACTIVITY 1

REFERENCES

UN Statistics Wiki. (2017, February 24). Retrieved February 26, 2021, from
https://unstats.un.org/wiki/display/M2CG/B.+
+Purpose+and+types+of+institutional+arrangements

Bank, A. D. (2012). Philippines:Transport Sector Assessment, Strategy and Road Map.

Quium, A. (n.d.). THE INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR SUS.

Reitveld, P., & Stough, R. (2006). Institutions, Regulations and Sustainable Transport, a
Review.

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