The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority on Wednesday shrugged off the proposition of a business group to appoint a traffic czar to address the country’s perennial traffic problem.

MMDA general manager Procopio Lipana stressed that there is “no need” to name a traffic czar, given the government’s continuous efforts to mitigate traffic problems.

“The primary problem is our infrastructure because we really lack road network compared to the volume of vehicles,” Lipana said.

He added that the government embarked in a massive infrastructure projects such as the Skyway, subway and other rail systems as he also cited that the MRT-7 is nearing completion.

“Once those projects are completed, there will be some elbow room to passengers,” Lipana said.

On Monday, the Management Association of the Philippines asserted that there was a traffic crisis in Metro Manila, which topped a transportation data specialist’s list of metro areas with the worst traffic in 2023.

It added that the government should recognize that the traffic crisis is the result of a failure in traffic management.

It also explained that a traffic czar should be appointed by the President and given full powers to mobilize, direct, and deploy existing government resources to ease traffic in the metro.

Billions of pesos are lost to the economy daily due to Metro Manila’s traffic congestion, the Japan International Cooperation Agency earlier reported.