Will, Mobility, Connection

As the gradual reopening of the economy in the country marks this 2022, this paved the way for the official comeback of onsite classes and work,especially in the third quarter of the year. However, during the return of students and workers to their school and work environments, they continue to grapple with long lines and several delays in the aging public transportation system, especially in one of the most congested metropolitan areas in the world, Metro Manila.

Commuters inside the said metropolitan area and even from neighboring provinces are tightly packed in the public transportation system plagued with various challenges that began decades ago. As this decades-old problem has existed since, how did the previous and current administrations respond to this?

Before answering the big question above, let’s first talk about the colonial history of Metro Manila’s transportation system. Back in the days when the city had a sophisticated and extensive transportation system.

During the late 19th century under Spanish colonial rule, horse-drawn carriages and steam-powered tranvias were introduced, owned, and operated by Compañia de los Tranvias de Filipinos (now Manila Electric Company or MERALCO), running from Malabon City to Tondo, Manila. Tranvias or trams are rail vehicles traveling on tramway tracks on public urban streets. Later during the American colonial period, these were replaced by electric tramways during the 20th century and the system underwent a period of significant expansion.

Meanwhile, the sole operator of the country’s intra-island railway system in Luzon, Philippine National Railways (PNR), had once dominated the nation’s largest major island. Its earliest predecessor, Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan, was established in the late 19th century under the colonial rule of Spaniards to serve passengers going north.

PNR’s last predecessor, Manila Railroad Company (MRRCo.), had undergone the largest expansion in its history connecting Luzon’s north and south from San Fernando, La Union to Legazpi, Albay in 1938.

Unfortunately, due to heavy bombardment between the Filipino and American forces, and Japanese troops during World War 2, some of the railway lines and all of the tramway lines were destroyed and never revived.

Several efforts were made to reconstruct and rehabilitate the railway infrastructure lost during the war. Finally, the PNR had entered its golden age despite the challenges of post-war from 1954 to 1956, according to the PNR’s website. Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel-powered fleets and the railway system served as a major backbone of Luzon’s transportation network. The railway agency even became one of the wealthiest government agencies at the time in terms of assets and diversified investments to bus and freight services, and hotels.

Surplus jeepneys left by the Americans as they withdrew from the Philippines after the war had ended were modified and refurbished by the Filipinos to serve the increasingly growing passenger population and densely populated cities throughout the country as means of inexpensive transportation cost. This trend made jeepneys one of the most popular choices among commuters and even hailed as the “King of the Philippine Roads.” Shortly after, buses, tricycles, and pedicabs dominated the roads along with jeepneys plying around even the country’s narrowest streets heading to residential areas. As a result of this increasing popularity of wheeled transportation, the railroads were mismanaged and neglected leaving them dilapidated. Then, the government shifted its priorities for car-centric infrastructure by building the World Bank-funded Pan-Philippine Highway or Maharlika Highway in the 1960s as pledged by President Diosdado Macapagal in his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 1965.

On the other hand, during President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. regime, his administration oversaw the construction of highway networks in the National Capital Region (NCR) such as the Magallanes Interchange and to neighboring provinces such as the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). According to the PNR’s website, this had further exacerbated the railway system, especially in the 1970s.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) published a transport improvement study in the early 1970s recommending to the Philippine government the construction of an inner-city rapid transit and commuter railway systems serving the Greater Manila Area to cater the growing commuter statistics. Some of these never materialized, while some took years to be built.

The Marcos Sr. administration had put little attention on building mass transit systems in Metro Manila such as the opening of the Manila Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 less than two years before he was ousted in power. It is the first and oldest rapid transit system ever built in Southeast Asia.

Several presidents after the late dictator’s term attempted to address the metro area’s lack of transportation network concern.

Manila Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 broke ground in 1997 during the term of President Fidel Ramos under a build-operatetransfer (BOT) scheme by the then-Department of Transportation and Communications (now the Department of Transportation or DOTr) and opened in 1999 under his successor’s term, President Joseph Estrada.

BOT is an agreement between the government and consortium in the private sector wherein the concessionaire (consortium) receives a concession from the government to finance, design, construct, own, and operate a certain facility for many years and under specified conditions depending on the contract, and later the property will be turned over to the government after the consortium has recovered its investments and expenses for operation and maintenance of the project. This is widely adopted by many countries worldwide, especially for large-scale infrastructure projects. This is a typical model used in public-private partnerships (PPP).

Meanwhile, LRT Line 2 also began its construction under Ramos’ term in 1997 and opened during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term in 2003. Speaking of Arroyo’s efforts in improving public transport in and out of Metro Manila, her administration launched the Strong Republic Transit System (SRTS) to integrate LRT, MRT, and PNR lines.

PNR’s North Main Line or North Rail extending from the partially closed Metro Manila to Ilocos Region segment and South Main Line or South Rail stretching to the partially closed Bicol Region segment were also covered by the SRTS. The North Rail project was one of the flagship programs initiated by the Arroyo administration with the help of a Chinese contractor to connect Caloocan City and Clark International Airport. This 80-kilometer railway deal collapsed due to alleged corruption and irregularities as the contract had been abrogated by her successor, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Aquino largely adopted the PPP during his term to implement major transportation projects such as the building, expansion and rehabilitation of existing rapid transits, construction of additional expressways, and establishment of intermodal terminals. Premium pointto-point (P2P) buses were also introduced in 2015 to offer commuters a reliable, safe, and convenient mode of transport and help reduce traffic volume in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.

When President Rodrigo Duterte came into power, he launched Build, Build, Build (BBB) program promising big ticket infrastructure projects, including in the transportation sector, achieving its golden age to enhance mobility and connectivity. The construction of the Japanesefunded first subway system of the country has finally started in 2019 and is scheduled to partially open in 2025. Meanwhile, the North-South Commuter Railway’s (NSCR) construction began in 2019 connecting New Clark City to Calamba, Laguna. Extension of skyways and building of bridges were also finished. Some of Aquino’s PPP projects were included in Duterte’s BBB and their implementation were either continued or revived.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. promised the continuity of Duterte’s BBB in his administration’s Build, Better, More (BBM) program.

Beyond these projects of the previous administrations, many have still failed to address the real issue here and commuters are the ones who keep suffering.

According to a 2019 study published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it was reported that Metro Manila was the most congested city among 278 cities in developing Asia. In the same year, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) reported that NCR had the largest number of registered motor vehicles. In 2018, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) reported that the average daily volume of cars passing EDSA was 251,628 compared to that of public utility buses that averaged 13,356. Public utility buses comprised only 3% of total traffic along EDSA in 2017, while private cars overwhelmingly took up 67% of road space. And yet, then MMDA implemented a provincial bus ban cutting their route from the border of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces stopping them at intermodal terminals outside the cities.

87% of Filipinos wanted the government to give weight to public transportation over private vehicles based on the 2020 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey. In a study conducted by the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Urban and Regional Planning in the same year, 70% of people rely on public transportation, but they only occupy 22% of the space, while only 30% rely on private vehicles.

This congestion which has been a pain on the backs of commuters is obviously some of the signs and symptoms of a mass transport crisis, according to non-profit think tank IBON foundation. As a commuter spends more time on the road due to transport shortage, the less time will be spent on family and quality of life will deteriorate due to extreme exhaustion from long hours of commute.

There are many solutions, actually. The think tank organization suggests slapping harsher penalties and demanding accountability for those government agencies signing self-serving and questionable contracts with other companies citing as one of reasons why the rail services have frequent breakdowns.

The other suggestion is to increase investment in improving capacity and reliability of rolling stocks for rail services, jeepneys, and buses to avoid passengers being packed inside and queueing up in long lines. Integrating buses and jeepneys’ routes to railway stations is a key to initiating a seamless and convenient transfer of mode of transport to easily hop on another. Establishing unobstructed bike lanes, sidewalks, and green spaces may encourage healthier travel to school or work and reduce pollution.

Decentralization of economic activities outside Metro Manila will disperse these commuters and stimulate economic growth in different provinces. The government may improve infrastructure anywhere in the Philippines, especially in Visayas and Mindanao, to make it attractive for companies to move their operations and headquarters there. Tax perks and other incentives may be provided to corporations who will withdraw from Metro Manila.

If the government would have to come up with political will and sustainable solutions, not just band-aid, a day in the life of a passenger would not be a long tiring day and not entering school or work late. Proper urban planning to enhance mobility by focusing on commuter-friendly policies would reinvigorate the growth of the economy and ease the problems of ordinary Filipinos every day to become fully prepared in a potentially occurring postpandemic world.