By Gabriela Baron
To solve the country’s public transportation problem, urban planners from the University of the Philippines (UP) called on the national government to “unify” governance on public transportation and include small operators and commuters in the modernization program.
Citing data from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the group said traffic congestion costs the Philippines about US $25 billion per year or almost P1.4 trillion, over 25% of the 2022 national budget.
UP School of Urban and Regional Planning Professor Dr. Crescencio Montalbo pointed out that while there are at least eight agencies regulating the public transportation system, he proposed that there should only be a single entity for the planning, operations, and monitoring of public transport.
Among the agencies include the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
In 2021, the TomTom International B.V Traffic Index, which ranks urban congestion worldwide and provides free access to city-by-city information covering cities across 58 countries on six continents, placed Metro Manila as the 18th most congested city in the world and 6th most congested city in Asia with a 43% congestion level.
Forty-three percent average congestion level means that on average, travel times were 43% longer than during the baseline non-congested conditions.
Jeepney, bus modernization
UP National College of Public Administration and Governance Professor Dr. Noriel Christopher Tiglao also stressed that modernizing the transportation system needs to involve bus and jeepney operators, drivers, and commuters “whose livelihood and incomes are affected.”
Tiglao noted that modernizing the sector is more than replacing outdated vehicles and highlighted the need to review and take stock of the stakeholders and commuters’ responses to the policy performance of the public utility vehicle modernization program.
Going electric
UP Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute Professor Dr. Lew Andre Tria said the government should think about “going electric and replacing our conventional vehicles, especially in public transportation.
“In some countries, they’re already targeting 2030 or even 2040 that they will go full electric,” Tria said.
“If we don’t think about going electric, we might be the last country to still use conventional vehicles, and the danger of that is there will be no suppliers for us for these conventional vehicles, and we might end up with just surplus or old vehicles coming from othe countries,” he added. — ngs
