PBBM, seemingly, doesn’t take for granted the endless agony of Filipinos residing, doing business, and working in the National Capital Region (NCR). In money terms, we are talking of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study, which showed that the monstrous traffic congestion in the NCR alone is estimated to cost the Philippine economy at least P3.5 billion daily, totaling a substantial P1.27 trillion annually.
At the invitation of Senior Undersecretary Cesar Chavez, Presidential Assistant on Traditional Media, I attended the Town Hall Meeting on Traffic Concerns at Filoil Arena, San Juan City on 10 April. It was a holiday, but for all the hundreds who showed up, this didn’t matter at all.
The critical meeting was organized by no less than President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who left later for the US trilateral meeting with President Joe Biden and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida. That’s how much PBBM is concerned about the plague confronting the greater Metro Manila.
Well, of course, as expected, the Cabinet secretaries, notably Department of Transportation chief Jimmy Bautista and DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan, with pride and enthusiasm, expounded in detail on what they have done and are doing to address and resolve the traffic concerns.
Bonoan briefed us on, among other things, the expansion of skyways and new roads within and connecting to the metro. A 32-kilometer C6 Expressway Phase I will reduce travel time from Bicutan to Batasan from two hours to 30 minutes. The C5 South Link Expressway will reduce travel time from R-1 Expressway to SLEX/C5 from 40 minutes to 10 minutes.
Bonoan said the Laguna Lakeshore Road Network Project Phase I, involving the construction of a 51-kilometer road network along the Laguna lakeshore from Calamba to Bicutan, will cater to the increasing traffic volume in the NCR’s southern corridor. Its detailed engineering design is 97 percent complete, while the loan processing for the project is underway with the Asian Development Bank.
On the other hand, Bautista said, “Our flagship road and rail infrastructure are offering comfortable, efficient, and accessible public transport as a better alternative to private vehicle ownership, thus lowering the number of road users.”
Among the DoTr’s big-ticket infra are the MRT-7, LRT-1 Cavite Extension, Metro Manila Subway, North-South Commuter Railway System, Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program, improvement of the EDSA Busway, and EDSA Greenways Project, which are aligned with the President’s goals.
In his response during the open forum, Marcos said the only way to decongest Metro Manila traffic is through a mass transit system. He explained that the government is intensifying its efforts to enhance the country’s public transportation network, including expanding motorcycle taxis in other urban centers nationwide.
“There really is no solution to traffic if we don’t transition to the roads and shift to mass transit. That’s why we’re putting up subways and trains; this is really to make things much easier. Even the rich ride the train because it’s the fastest way to get to their destination. That’s how it is even in big cities like New York and London. They ride the train, so that really is the only solution,” Marcos said.
But after listening to every official at the town hall, we noticed no mention of population decongestion and how our workforce and businesses, incentivized, would shift to outside NCR.
Annually, 35,000 new cars are registered in the NCR, with 3.63 million vehicles clogging the streets daily. Adding to the aggravation are so-called new cities — new condominiums and other structures sprouting like mushrooms. From 151,000 condo units in 2022, the number rose to 155,000 last year.
One can imagine how much the number of cars and residents will exacerbate the already highly congested metropolis.
We believe our officials, the policymakers, should take note of this if they are indeed serious about decongesting Metro Manila.
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