Considering the number of island barangays in our country, I have no doubt in my mind that we should already introduce a system of sea ambulances all over the country, wherever these are needed. I am saying that it should be a "system", because these sea ambulances would be practically useless, not unless it will be supported by an emergency dispatching system, and an "army" of emergency medical technicians (EMTs). I will never subscribe to the argument that some LGUs do not have ambulances because they have no money to buy these. I think that is a rotten reasoning, and it is just proof to show that the LGU officials who say that do not have their priorities in order.
I understand that the LGUs may have other priorities, but who can
say that saving lives is not a priority? When I was a director at the
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), I was happy to be part of the board
of directors that approved the request of LGUs for ambulance units. I was
however surprised to find out that many LGUs are waiting in line to get their
ambulance units donated to them, instead of buying these themselves.
I eventually realized that the problem is not money. The problem
is how they prioritize their expenses, because in reality, they could even
acquire ambulance units on a lease-to-own basis. The other thing that I noticed
at that time was that many LGUs that received the ambulance units from PCSO did
not have the necessary EMTs who were needed to provide the necessary emergency
services. It is sad that some LGU officials even used their units for personal
purposes, such as using these as transport purposes that have nothing to do
with medical emergencies.
Ideally, all LGUs should have 911 call centers that could
immediately dispatch not only the ambulance units but also police cars, fire
trucks and also rescue vehicles. I have built a similar call center before, and
I would be willing to help any LGU that would need any assistance for that
purpose. I could also help with EMT training and certification.
Fiber optic cables along the railways
When I was in Japan
many years ago as a guest of the Japanese government to observe their advanced information
and communications technologies (ICT), I learned that over there, all railroad
operators including Japan Railways (JR) were required to lay down fiber optic
cables along all of their railroads. What that means is that all over Japan,
there are always fiber optic networks where there are railroad networks. When I
was in the United States as a press attaché in the Philippine Embassy in
Washington DC and as a consular assistant at the Philippine Consulate General
in New York, I also observed that all railroad operators over there were also
required to lay down fiber optic cables along all of their railroads. Aside
from that, new telecom players were allowed to install their own fiber optic
cables anywhere, anytime. Aside from the fact that there are no right of way
(ROW) problems if the fiber optic cables are laid down along the railways, it
is also cheaper to do that, instead of digging new underground systems where
there are no railways. Because of the cheaper costs, it would be safe to assume
that the costs of the internet and mobile services would become cheaper also.
In theory, the internet and mobile signals could also become faster.
At the risk of stating the obvious, ROW issues are really big
problems in infrastructure development. Not unless the Department of Public
Works and Highways (DPWH) will be required to submit a list of ROW problems
that are affecting road building projects, we will never know the numbers. If
we include the ROW problems of the PPP projects, the list could go longer.
In the days when the transportation and the communications
functions were still rolled into one in the defunct Department of
Transportation and Communications (DOTC), it would have been easier to
coordinate the building of railroads with the laying down of fiber cables. But
for now, it is not too late for the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to talk to each
other.
Radio frequency identification
I could not understand why the radio frequency identification
(RFID) systems are failing in our Metro Manila tollway systems. The RFID system
is not rocket-science, and it is already a very stable technology. At the risk
of oversimplifying it, all it really takes to operate an RFID system are four
elements namely tags or chips, antennas, readers and backend software. In
theory, the RFID system is more expensive and more sophisticated than quick response
(QR) codes, but their functions are very much similar.
As I see it, the probable reason why an RFID system could fail is
if one of the elements could fail. For example, the tags or chips could get
eroded, the antennas could be broken, the readers could malfunction, and the
backend software could be affected by viruses or malware. But considering that
the RFID systems that were deployed were supposedly high end, it is unlikely
that these would easily fail.
Pardon me for saying so, but sometimes I think that the reason
why our local information and communications technology (ICT) systems are
failing, is because many of our good ICT practitioners have gone abroad,
because of the brain drain. I am saying that, because even the most advanced
ICT systems are only as good as the ICT people who are managing them.
In other words, the systems could fail, because the people
running them could fail. Aside from RFID chips and QR codes, near field communications
(NFC) is another technology that our tollway operators could use for entry and
payment purposes. Although NFC could do most of the functions that RFID and QR
could do, it is somehow limited in the sense that device-to-device transactions
could only work within a range of 4 centimeters or 1. 6 meters. Generally
speaking, QR and NFC are used in point of sale (POS) transactions. Since slow
traffic is already a big problem in Metro Manila, our tollway operators should
do their part in making sure that their payment systems in their toll gates
will not cause any more slowdowns in their own areas. Good providers of RFID,
QR and NFC systems are a dime a dozen now, and they are everywhere now. But if
the tollway operators still need help in locating them, I could help by
introducing them.