All must cooperate to solve Metro Manila traffic: Palace

FILE: EDSA, Mandaluyong, Philippines (Photo: Eugenio Pastoral/Unsplash)

MANILA — The Executive Branch needs cooperation with other branches of government to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark in response to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which showed that Metro Manila is the most congested city in Asia.

The report found that among cities with a population greater than five million, the Philippines transport system had a congestion value of 1.5 when the average congestion of all sampled cities was at 1.24.

Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte has long been asking for emergency powers to address traffic woes but Senate continues to doubt the administration’s commitment to ensure it is free from abuse and corruption.

“O ‘di ba sinabi ni Presidente, ‘Eh gusto kong gawan ng paraan, ayaw ninyo naman (Didn’t the President say, ‘I want to do something about it but you don’t want to help’),” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.

The Palace official said the Executive Branch could not work alone when it came to addressing the traffic problem.

“Kailangan kasi (What we need is that) all branches must cooperate with each other,” Panelo said.

“Hindi pupuwedeng isang branch lang ng gobyerno ang mamamahala at tutugon sa pangangailangan ng mga kababayan natin, otherwise, talagang mahihirapan (It can’t be that there’s only one branch of government managing and addressing the needs of our citizens, otherwise, we will really have difficulty),” he added.

Panelo said he was hopeful that ongoing infrastructure projects such as San Miguel Corp.’s plan to build a 10-lane elevated expressway that would run the length of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) and ease traffic in Metro Manila.

“Hopefully. Kagaya ng sinabi ko sa inyo, iyong proposal ni Mr. Ramon Ang, maganda iyon; kapag nagawa niya iyon in two years, walang trapik ang Edsa (As I said, Mr. Ramon Ang has a good proposal; if they can finish that in two years, there won’t be traffic in Edsa),” Panelo said.

He said measures to improve the traffic condition will be discussed during the next Cabinet meeting

Although not against granting emergency powers, Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, stood pat on her decision not to grant them unless backed by a well-studied master plan.

“Let me stress that I am not against emergency powers. In fact, granting it does not solely rely on me. I am just one vote in the Senate. Like my colleagues, I have to be convinced why it is needed,” Poe said in a statement.

“I am for anything that will solve traffic. We are all victims of this. I am for it if it is guaranteed that they have a plan. For you to give something as immense as the emergency powers, you have to be sniper accurate, it cannot be a shotgun approach,” she added.

Even without emergency powers, Poe insisted that there are laws and policies to speed up government projects to alleviate traffic woes.