The daily cost of heavy traffic to Metro Manila residents jumped 45.6 percent this year as vehicle congestion in the metropolis got worse, the Japan International Cooperation Agency said Thursday.
Susumo Ito, chief representative of Jica Philippines Office said during the 36th Joint Meeting of the Economic Cooperation Committees of the Philippines and Japan that the updated daily cost of traffic in Metro Manila was P3.5 billion in 2017, higher than the estimated P2.4 billion based on the previous transport roadmap.
Jica said with the estimated 12.8 million population of Metro Manila as of 2015, the cost would amount to P273 for each resident a day, up from P187.5 for each resident in the previous roadmap.
It said without intervention, the daily cost traffic would increase to P5.4 billion in the coming years.
Ito said Metro Manila’s traffic situation was getting worse as traffic demand reached 13.4 million trips a day.
He said the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program “is in right direction, but even with BBB, bottlenecks will remain in outer areas. Therefore, additional projects should be implemented.”
By 2035, the daily cost of traffic will is seen doing down to P3 billion with the government BBB program. It said with additional projects, the impact would be further reduced to P2.4 billion.
Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said the real answer to traffic problem was an efficient transport system “• a combination of buses, light rail and urban subway.
“These also have added benefit of pushing population out of Metro Manila to suburbs,” Pangilinan said.
“That is why the solution offered by various Japanese-funded rail projects, such as the 160-kilometer Clark to Los Baños Commuter Line and the Mega Manila Subway are projects we support. We are prepared to participate meaningfully in these projects,” he said.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the BBB program would mean more roads, bridges, railways, airports and ports being constructed and more jobs being generated.
“We are not just building structures, we are connecting cities, bringing people closer, and improving lives,” he said.
The government plans to spend P8 trillion to P9 trillion, or roughly $160 billion to $180 billion, in the next six years for the BBB program.
The government this year appropriated P847.2 billion in the national budget for infrastructure projects, or equivalent of 5.3 percent of the gross domestic product. This is higher than the 2.6 percent average infrastructure spending of the last six administrations.
The Philippines never reached the 5 percent of GDP threshold for infrastructure spending in the last 30 years.
Infrastructure spending for 2018 alone will reach P1.13 trillion.