Danille Maye Lagman | The Capitol
Posted on December 1, 2022 | 2:00 PM
Photo by: Danille Maye Lagman
Leaving your home without being anxious if you will make it on time or without worrying about the long queue ahead of you as you ride the bus going to school, to your work, or to just somewhere else. No rush hours for jeepney commuters every morning or late evening as there are subways and trains to accommodate the number of passengers.
Of course, needless to say this is not the Philippines, but we could all guess, this is the dream of the Filipinos.
In a study of “2022 Urban Mobility Index” by think tank Oliver Wyman Forum and University of California, Berkeley, they ranked 60 cities around the world according to their “mobility readiness” which includes the quality of their public transit systems and related factors such as commute speed, waiting time, and affordability. And guess what? Manila ranked among the worst at 56th place for public transit, surprisingly not surprising.
The Philippine capital city also ranked 48th for sustainable mobility and 58th in urban mobility readiness making it the only country in the Asia-Pacific region to be part of the bottom 10 which the study mentioned as “lagging cities” while its neighbor regions Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo belonging among the “leading cities” being at first, fourth, and seventh, respectively.
Relatively, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman highlighted the transportation system as one of the priorities in the President’s Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2023. The proposed budget for Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) is at Php718.4-B, while the Department of Transportation will receive Php167.1-B in 2023—which is 120.4 % higher from
its Php75.8-B budget in 2022, to cover the elevated costing for various foreign-assisted railway projects, Sec. Pangandaman said.
As of this time, the Marcos administration's transportation department has substantially invested in the continuity of Duterte administration's rail infrastructure projects. It has also supported the continuity of the Libreng Sakay Program which receives backlash from several bus drivers who were buried in debt being unpaid as the program rolls.
With the worsening transportation system, Filipinos resort in owning private vehicles instead of hoping for a better public transport, and the rise in number of these private vehicles only leads to worsen traffic congestion, “carmageddon” as it is typically coined. In 2014, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimated that the Philippines lose at least Php2.4-B daily due to traffic jam. Unless this is a sacrifice the Filipinos are willing to take, JICA added that it is imperative for a future Metro Manila landscape to be with fewer vehicles on the road with a crucial role the public transport system must play which includes more access to trains and city buses.
The Filipinos have long regained themselves from the oppressors only to be enslaved by their own transport system. As access to effective and affordable public transport remain inaccessible to many, how long can the Filipinos endure to hope for their freedom from the worsening transport system?
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