METRO Manila traffic. It is as much of a Filipino monster as the legendary aswang, tiyanak or tikbalang—except it is no myth. Filipinos live through this nightmare every day. They fear it; they live through it; they breathe it.
With approximately 9.5 million motor vehicles, cars on the road have formed a perpetual gridlock, adversely affecting not only travel time for motorists and commuters but also the country’s revenue and its overall air quality.
Traveling in Metro Manila has taken a toll that guarantees commuters are on the road at least 66 minutes before getting anywhere else, according to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which ranked the Philippines as the third worst in terms of traffic congestion in Southeast Asia.
The impact of traffic congestion is also being felt by the country’s coffers, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) reporting an approximate P3.5-billion loss in opportunities and revenue every single day since 2017.
More than losses from traffic congestion, health hazards have also been noted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which reported that 80 percent of air pollution in the country was a result of the transport sector.
Globally, 4.2 million people die from outside air pollution, according to the World Health Organization. While a report from the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) showed that the number of Filipinos whose health was adversely affected due to exposure to particulate matter grew to 1 million in 2003 alone.
The problem for the chronic pain that Filipinos suffer—both literally and figuratively—from traffic congestion is always seen to have come from poor infrastructure, poor urban planning and poor traffic management.
However, experts view that the root cause of the problem is a mix of decades of underspending, miles of bureaucratic red tape, personal agenda and legal tussles.
Develop railway systems
One way to help alleviate the traffic mess in Metro Manila, according to Jica Senior Representative to the Philippines Tetsuya Yamada, is to develop railway systems in the metropolis.
Train lines are seen as one of the most effective solutions to addressing the need for a mass transit system that is more efficient than buses, jeepneys, taxis and even Internet-based ride-hailing apps.
A passenger boards a train run by the Philippine National Railways, which began operations on November 24, 1892, as the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan, during the Spanish colonial period. It operates a single line of track on Luzon.
“In our view, transportation is a network service,” he said during a BusinessMirror Coffee Club forum recently. “Just like power situations or water services, they are a network—not really a pinpoint, point-to-point services.”
This, however, remains true for Metro Manila. Currently, the metropolis has four railway lines servicing different corridors in the capital. Some stations of the four systems intersect, but moving from one line to another can be of a hassle, as none of them have a common station for ease of transfer.
Based on the recent competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranked a dismal 97th out of 137 countries when it comes to infrastructure, 104th in road quality, 91st in railway infrastructure, and 124th in transport infrastructure.
This comes in stark contrast to Jica’s reports of Manila’s dense population count.
Despite numbering at 20,785 people per square kilometer (sq km), only a total 79 kilometers of rail track is currently in operation to serve this group.
Other major cities like London, England, have a total of 590 km of railroad serving a 5,375 people/sq km density count. Similarly, New York City, despite having only 10,250 people per sq km, has an 890-km stretch of railroad.
‘Strong backbone, feeder lines’
HOWEVER, this presents an opportunity for the Philippines to step up its game in the railway game, according to Yamada.
The Philippines, while boasting of having the first overhead railway line in Southeast Asia, is still in the nascent stage of railway development, he pointed out.
“Network should be developed in the future. But there’s always a starting point. And we are at the starting point,” he said.
The good thing about having a starting point, he said, is that it allows the country to first build a “strong backbone.”
“We all know that roads are congested. There is no more room for roads, for more cars in the future. So that means we have to stretch the living areas and the working areas, north and south of Metro Manila,” he said. “We need strong transportation backbone running north and south—that’s the whole concept.”
Yamada was referring to the Jica-financed North South Commuter Railway project, a roughly P136.3-billion railway initiative that will create a 38-km commuter line that runs from Malolos, Bulacan, to Tutuban, Manila.
The objective of the said project is to reduce travel time between the two areas from over 1.5 hours to only 35 minutes. It is expected to serve more than 300,000 passengers per day, and is expected to be fully operational in 2022.
“Even people outside Metro Manila can agree with the necessity of building a railway transportation system in the national capital, Metro Manila area,” Yamada said.
Japan is extending a loan facility of $2 billion to finance the project, the largest loan commitment that Jica has ever made.
Currently, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is in the process of finalizing the bidding for the construction of the said railway system. Bids are expected to be placed in August.
Jica is also assisting the Philippine government in the creation of the supplemental feasibility study and detailed engineering and design of the second phase of the North South Commuter Railway, which aims to connect Malolos to Clark, and Tutuban to Calamba.
Complementing this backbone, according to Yamada, is the proposed Metro Manila Subway system, which Japan is also funding through an initial tranche of loan amounting to P49.5 billion. The whole project costs about P378.6 billion.
The first phase of the whole project involves the construction of a 25-km underground train line that connects Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to the Food Terminal Inc. compound in Taguig City.
According to Yamada, his group is currently studying the possibility of extending the first phase of the subway project to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), as requested by the Philippine government.
“Our plan is to complete everything by 2025,” he said.
But aside from having a strong backbone, the railway network in the Philippines should also include feeder lines, which are basically peripheral routes that connect remote areas that are carrying heavy traffic.
Yamada cited the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 7 as a good example of a feeder line.
Targeted to be finished by 2019, the 2.8-km rail-transit system is envisioned to operate 108 rail cars in a three-car train configuration with a daily passenger capacity ranging from 448,000 to 850,000.
It will have four stations, starting with the North Avenue Station on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, passing through Commonwealth Avenue, Regalado Avenue and Quirino Highway, up to the proposed Intermodal Transport Terminal in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan.
The said railway infrastructure is being constructed by a unit of San Miguel Corp.
“I think when it comes to feeder lines, private bodies can come in to serve certain areas or certain passenger segments,” Yamada noted.
‘A little too late‘
WHILE these new projects paint a rosy picture for the future of the Philippines, some critics are skeptical of the progress these projects assume to deliver.
Prof. Jose Regin F. Regidor from the University of the Philippines-Diliman’s National Center for Transportation Studies pointed out that the Philippines is playing catch-up with its neighbors in terms of railway development.
“We should have built a network starting back in the 1980s. The original network plans for subways, for example, were in the mid-’70s yet the government then opted for light rail, thus Line 1. Events during the 1980s and 1990s made sure we didn’t get a second line, Line 2 until the late 1990s,” he said in an e-mail to the BusinessMirror.
Backtracking through past policies concerning the country’s railway confirms Regidor’s findings. Following the Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) success and continued use after the Second World War, three comprehensive railway plans were created and proposed, but were eventually dismissed when the government decided to settle just for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2, and the MRT Line 3, through an executive order and a republic act.
These abandoned plans were the Urban Transport Study for Manila Metropolitan Area (UTSMMA) in 1973; the Metro Manila Urban Transport and Land Use Plan Study (MMETROPLAN) in 1977; and the Metro Manila Urban Transportation Integration Study (MMUTIS) in 1999.
The UTSMMA recommended five rail rapid transit lines with a combined stretch of 141.87 km of railway. It would have connected areas like Construction Hill and Talon; Novaliches and Cainta; Marikina and Zapote; Meycauayan and Manila; and provided passage along C4. This plan was supported by the Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency (Otca), the precursor of today’s Jica.
The MMETROPLAN opted for a network of five light rail transit lines, 36.76 km long, which would have superimposed the current roadwork in Metro Manila.
The country currently follows a “bastardized” version of the MMUTIS, which was supported by Jica back in 1999. Only three out of the nine lines proposed in the study were followed in its implementation, thus forming only a brief stretch of 74.5 km of railway; with only 43 percent, or 61 of the original 142 proposed stations.
The study “What if Metro Manila Developed a Comprehensive Rail Transit Network?” conducted by Regidor and his colleagues found that full implementation of the MMUTIS plan would have reaped the “most benefits” to the country, alleviating the major problem of exaggerated travel time.
Even Yamada conceded the late timing: “I would agree. It was too late. If you look at the other countries at the same level in terms of the national income such as Indonesia or Vietnam, they are actually lower when it comes to national level of income but they are moving ahead of us—building subway systems. In that sense, I think we were a bit late to start.” Still, he quickly added, it’s best to start somewhere.
BCG’s report also finds that despite the ambitious plans to remedy the congestion issue through increasing rail-based public transport capacity, estimating “that the added capacity of rail transport alone will not be sufficient to meet growth in transport demand by 2022.”
Integrated transport system
AND while it is a little too late to develop railway infrastructure, Yamada believes that the current administration’s initiatives are “better than nothing.”
However, these are only the initial batch of railways that should be developed by the Philippine government in the next few decades. There are more train lines that need to be constructed in order to really achieve a better, more efficient transportation system in the Philippines.
“Basically, in order for people to rely more on public transportation, instead of using cars, we need a more comfortable network system where, basically, you can walk to the station. Or you can walk to the bus or para-train system to go to the station. So that’s the ideal situation of the public transportation system that needs to be further developed,” he said.
“So it shouldn’t be only the train system that serves all the passengers, but what we need [are] more integrated, comprehensive routes and franchising system that need to be rationalized,” he said.
Included in the government’s plan for a more efficient transport system is the modernization of the public utility vehicles in the Philippines. In the said program, routes for road transport modes will be rationalized and further developed, and old, dilapidated models of vehicles will be replaced by new ones.
Railway education
To complement the hard infrastructure being built to address traffic congestion and the country’s stunted growth in public transportation, Jica plans to put up a Philippine Railway Institute (PRI), a body that will act both as a training institution and a licensing agency, when it comes to railway management. The project began in April and will officially end in March 2023.
“The objective of establishing this Philippine Railway Institute is basically to avoid the same mistakes that happened all the time for railway systems in this country,” explained Yamada.
The institute is also the government’s response to past mistakes in terms of the poor management and maintenance that led to the deterioration of facilities like the MRT 3, which is deemed as the most congested of all three overhead railway lines.
The said train system is also marred by legal cases, procurement hullabaloos and corruption issues. It has also figured in an uncoupling incident that caused one of the train cars to ram against its barricade in Pasay City, causing injuries to several passengers.
“I believe the major, major issues related to the unlucky event are lack of proper maintenance and lack of people capable of doing that. So that’s a whole objective of establishing this Philippine Railway Institute in terms of building the capacity that is involved in the future railway business in the country,” Yamada said.
The Japanese agency will be developing curriculum and teaching materials to train Filipinos in handling train systems.
“We’re going to help the Philippines develop the laws and regulations and safety standards. And, based on that, we will build training material. And we’re going to develop training programs and facilities. This not only serves the railway business employees in the public sector, but anyone involved in the railway business, including the private sector, can come in to be trained under this PRI,” Yamada said.
Policies, laws
HOWEVER, in order to help implement all these hard infrastructure development projects and education programs, the government must also implement laws and policies pertaining to railway management.
“Basically, we have railway laws in Japan so that all the railway operators should follow some sort of norms and standards, in terms of safety and business efficiency and benefit of the passengers that use the train system,” Yamada said.
He said the Japanese government is keen on helping the Philippine government develop laws and policies that are targeted for the local market.
“What we are trying to do is, first of all, introduce the Japanese system to show to Filipino counterparts to help understand what kind of laws are there in Japan. And we will discuss further what needs to be introduced in this country. Basically, we have very different conditions,” Yamada said.
Separate operator, regulator
Specifically, a policy on the separation of operator and regulatory functions should be implemented in the Philippines, he noted.
Currently, the DOTr plays the role of railway operator and regulator at the same time through the Light Rail Transit Authority. Only the LRT 1 is privately operated.
“In Japan’s case, it’s totally different systems. We have various railway operators, but regulation is taken care of by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism—they don’t run the train system. Some train systems are run by public sectors, but not the ministry itself,” he said. “So that’s one of the things that we’re thinking about introducing.”
Sustainability
WITH all these plans now up and running, and assistance from foreign groups pouring in, the Philippines is on the right track to attaining a better railway and overall transportation sector.
However, for Rene S. Santiago, president of Bellwether Advisory Inc. and longtime critic of the country’s transportation system, plans for infrastructure development and policies are things that need continuation.
“The solutions to traffic congestion—there’s nothing new there. The newness is the people coming in. They are always new. They’re always groping and trying to learn. When they see something from the past, something that happened in the previous administration, they tend to dismiss it—just like that,” Santiago said in a phone interview.
Yamada agreed, saying that sustainability is the way to go, as politicizing projects will not benefit the common Filipino.
“We need support from the public. We need continuation. We cannot stop by 2022. Everyone wants it. Everyone wants good transportation network. Everyone wants to ride the train. Everyone wants to be at the work place faster than what we are currently experiencing right now. And we all need to support that idea,” he said.
Yamada added: “I think that’s the top priority issue for the entire Philippines as an administration—which is basically traffic and decongesting Metro Manila; preventing the same situation to happen in the future for some other parts of the country.”
But for as long as these infrastructure projects are not yet completed and policies remain unchanged or improved, traffic congestion will continue to haunt the common Juan like the monsters from Filipino folklore. With additional report by Wynzyleen L. Lee, Intern
