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The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), through its Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has called on the national government to declare a “state of calamity” due to the worsening traffic conditions in the National Capital Region (NCR).
In a statement from MAP on March 21, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Eduardo Yap cited the severe traffic congestion in NCR that has incurred economic losses of around P3.5 billion daily, which “more than merits a declaration of a state of calamity in Metro Manila” in line with proposed House Bill No. 4363.
A draft of the House Bill indicates that “the President is authorized to enter into contracts for the purchase, construction, repair, rehabilitation, maintenance or critical transportation related projects that aim to reduce congestion and ease the current traffic crisis in Metro Manila.”
As concerns over the adverse effect of traffic mount, MAP shared its Holistic Plan to lawmakers in a public hearing of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development on March 20, chaired by Manila Second District Rep. Rolando Valeriano.
According to Yap, the Holistic Plan “calls for such a declaration, albeit a traffic crisis, and a new management task force headed by a traffic czar to undertake a comprehensive program consisting of short, medium and long- term measures to provide the soonest relief with administrative and management measures and long-term sustainability through structural interventions, particularly transportation infrastructures focused on mass public transportation.”
Yap also expressed the group’s support for encouraging the use of private or public electric vehicles (EVs), as proposed by Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia, including the conversion of buses at EDSA Busway to electric power.
However, he stressed that the EDSA Busway must be exclusively used by public buses, as aligned with MAP’s own policy.
To urge more motorists to purchase and use EVs, Yap recommended a policy exempting EV owners from paying road congestion charges “when such a system of travel demand management envisioned under the National Transport Plan is finally instituted on congested private car lanes in major roads, such as EDSA.” Ideally this would be implemented when the Busway and the MRT3 have been privatized and upgraded.
“Such a situation will present an attractive mobility option, other than private vehicles, that will encourage motorists to shift to mass transit and spare motorists from incurring road congestion user charge while helping to decongest traffic,” he added.
The big ticket transport projects and evolving traffic measures will help decongest traffic, but the measures must be unified in a comprehensive plan like the Holistic Plan, Yap noted. — Khrischielle Yalao
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