It is estimated that three billion pesos (USD64 million) is lost every day because of traffic. Left unchecked, Metro Manila may become uninhabitable well within a decade. So who’s to blame? Here’s a short list:
1. The Catholic Church. Philippine cardinals and bishops all the way down to parish priests and even lay ministers love to wield power then shun any responsibility for their actions. So they preach that all forms of artificial contraception is evil and when the country’s population explodes as it has, all these holier-than-thou charlatans are nowhere to be found. As far as they’re concerned, it is not their problem. When pressed for a solution, they fall back on their standard non-answer “God will find a way.”
2. The three branches of government. People in this group are driven around with motorcycle escorts, lights flashing and sirens blaring. They never experience any traffic while riding around the city in their bullet-proof, late-model, air-conditioned, SUVs. So they’re not even aware a traffic problem exists. Legislation that would have instituted proper urban planning or funded well-thought-out infrastructure and mass-transit projects were never introduced or never properly implemented.
This is because there is no long-range planning in the Philippines. Everyone is just interested in the here and now—remembering the past or planning for the future is just a waste of time as far as most Pinoys are concerned.
3. The driving public. It does not matter if it is dilapidated jeep or a late-model Porsche, if the person behind the wheel is a Filipino, 99 times out of a hundred, he or she is a lousy driver. Road courtesy is next to non-existent in the Philippines. Everyone cuts everyone else off; people drive on the wrong side of the road when it is convenient.
Because driver’s education has never been taught in school, several generations of Filipino drivers have gotten behind the wheel without proper training or fully understanding the rules of the road. Road courtesy and strict compliance with all traffic rules, regulations, and laws must be at the very top of any to-do list to fix the country’s traffic problem.
4. Jeepney, bus and tricycle drivers. These are the worst offenders. They seem to have no regard for anyone else on the road. Jeepneys need to be phased out and replaced with buses. Only in third-world countries like the Philippines will you find these types of outdated, highly inefficient modes of public transportation.
5. Pedestrians and the general public. Even ordinary people cause traffic by walking on the street when they ought to use the sidewalk. Pinoys think nothing of walking on roadways even when sidewalks are available. Then again, many times there are no sidewalks because it is occupied by street vendors, or parked vehicles, or businesses that expropriate the sidewalk for their own use, or simply because the local government never bothered to put in a sidewalk.
Metro Manila traffic is one gigantic mess. We don’t have all the answers but the problem must be addressed not only for the short term, but for the medium, and long terms as well. It will be difficult and everyone will have to share in the burden and the pain! At the end of the day, we Filipinos all share in the blame. But it must be done. And if it is to be done right, the country must have only the best and brightest minds addressing the problem. What we don’t want to do is put all our efforts into an ill-conceived, half-baked solution.
President Duterte is going to have a lot on his plate just with Metro Manila’s traffic mess. We hope he reads some of the observations we point out above and we send him all our good wishes … God knows he’ll need it. (First published in Philnews.com, July 5,2016)