The Auto Focus Pre-Christmas Test Drive Festival (PCTDF) presented by CALTEX, the country’s biggest outdoor motoring event of its kind, returns for another long weekend of fun learning on what car to buy this holiday season.
From Nov. 16 to 19, a wide range of sedans, SUVs, sports cars, multi-purpose vehicles, vans and pickups, as well as hybrids and full electric vehicles will be available for test drives at Block 16 of the SM MOA Concert Grounds.
We are again elated and privileged to partner with Caltex and the prime movers of the automobile industry.
They share our vision and mission of providing the motoring public with a veritable and convenient one-stop shop where they may see, compare and test drive various cars of their choice.
Organized annually by Sunshine Television, the multi-brand drive festival helps those looking for the perfect vehicle for their needs become well-informed and knowledgeable before that final buying decision is made.
Just as important, they get the best deals and offers available to them at the festival.
The list of participants includes: Changan, Ford, GAC, GWM, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.
Rethinking Busway
Every day a kind of reality show takes place on the EDSA Busway.
It’s kind of a comedy but with sad or even tragic consequences.
The actors are personnel of the Metro Manila Development Authority and the private motorists of the four- and two-wheel kind.
The show is all about the cat-and-mouse game played by MMDA personnel and the motorists who like driving or riding on the EDSA Busway lanes where only EDSA Carousel bus units are allowed.
The game is played wherever MMDA teams lay down traps along segments of EDSA to apprehend and cite motorists and motorcycle riders violating the EDSA Busway ban.
It’s funny watching what many social media commenters dub the “EDSA patintero” — with the MMDA playing “taya” and trying to herd motorists to the side to cite them for the violation.
The sad thing is that what is a happening daily is not taken seriously by motorists and the general public.
To some motorists it truly is a game, gambling that on that day or hour, there is no one enforcing the ban.
And if the MMDA team is there, it’s game on for the EDSA Patintero.
It is no longer if, but when something tragic occurs and someone — MMDA personnel or motorists, rider, or backrider get seriously injured by the game.
The fine for the violation seems not enough to deter recalcitrants as exemplified by social media posts of MMDA catching the same motorists at the same place and hour where they were apprehended a day earlier.
The MMDA has aired proposals to increase the fines and make it more prohibitive. Of course, these would be met by criticism that it would be anti-poor.
A few—a popular influencer included—suggest more out-of-the-box solutions like making the EDSA Busway run the opposite way.
Others suggest that perhaps a three-strike policy can be more easily enforced — three confirmed violations and licenses are suspended or cancelled.
This comic/tragic reality show may have a few more seasons to go as the Department of Transportation is working on privatizing the EDSA Busway or EDSA Carousel.
According to news reports, DOTr expects to continue overseeing the operations of the EDSA Busway or EDSA Carousel at least for two years more while the process of its privatization continues.
According to Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan, the DOTr expects the contracted consultant, Deloitte, to submit its feasibility study on the EDSA Busway privatization in the first semester of 2024.
This will then be presented to the National Economic and Development Authority for final approval which takes around another six months.
Only after NEDA greenlights the initiative will the DOTr bid out the EDSA Busway to the private sector most likely by 2025, Batan estimated.
Meanwhile, Batan assured commuters who have learned to depend on the EDSA Busway the DOTr will shoulder the operations and maintenance of the EDSA Busway until it is turned over to the private sector.
One question remains: How will the private operator ensure its operations are not hampered by motorists who still want to play patintero on EDSA?
Happy Motoring!!!
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