PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said China could help solve the traffic congestion in Metro Manila and slammed Congress for not giving Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade the budget to solve the problem.
“Nobody but nobody can solve the traffic [problem], not even me personally if we don’t have money to spend for a new infrastructure,” Duterte said.
“It could be a railway, a highway elevated somewhere. But if there is a lack of funds, which Congress did not give to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade. Lack of trust. They do not like him.”
Under the P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017, the Transport Department was allotted P55.48 billion or an increase of 25.0 percent from 2016.
Duterte hopes other countries such as South Korea, Japan and Czechoslovakia would invest in the Philippines to solve the traffic problem.
“A lot of those guys are coming in so I’m sure two to three years from now, we’ll be better,” Duterte said.
The Transport Department submitted documents containing the list of priority projects and a draft bill to justify the emergency powers for Duterte to reduce traffic congestion.
Under the draft bill, the department proposed to unify the rules on traffic management, which is currently handled by various agencies such as the Land Transportation Office, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and the local government units.
A study by Japan International Cooperation Agency estimated the cost of traffic at P2.4 billion a day. Without intervention, Jica estimated that traffic costs would increase to P6 billion a day.
According to the online database Numbeo, the Philippines was the 10th country in the world with the worst traffic conditions as of mid-2016.
The Philippines had a traffic index score of 199.66 based on Numbeo’s traffic index in the 2016 mid-year report.
Responding to criticisms against his Cabinet secretary, Duterte showed confidence in Tugade.
“Tugade is there. He has the brains to do it. I’m pretty sure of that. But he has asked for the money, which is not forthcoming. We have to look for something better,” Duterte said.