Commuters’ group to presidential bets: Solve traffic woes

MANILA, Philippines – A group of commuters dared presidential candidates to bare their position on the daily mass transportation woes in the country. 

Sammy Malunes, spokesman of the Riles Laan sa Sambayanan (RILES) said commuters need to see aspiring candidates take on real issues.

“The transportation problem has important implications for economic development. Will the candidates provide a service for the people, or will they use Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to fill the pockets of rich private concessionaires? We need to know where candidates stand,” he said.

Last month, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Metro Manila’s traffic jams cost the Philippine economy at least P3 billion a day.

He cited a Japanese study in 2012 found that time lost by people stuck in traffic and the extra cost of operating vehicles in gridlock in Metropolitan Manila and nearby areas amounted to P2.4 billion ($51 million) a day.

With a bigger population today and more vehicles on the roads, he said P3 billion ($64 billion) is a conservative estimate. The cost over a year is 0.8 percent of gross domestic product.

Malunes also challenged candidates to support calls for the government to take over the operation of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Philippine National Railways as “it will be the best solution to deteriorating service, alarming safety measures and oppressive fare hikes.”

He said the candidates’ support for a government takeover will help save thousands of people from being displaced by the MRT and LRT extension projects.

Malunes cited a study claiming that around 2,000 families  will be displaced by the LRT-1 extension and operations maintenance project while 10,000 more families will be displaced by the MRT-7 project in Bulacan, Caloocan and Quezon City.

He also said a fare increase may happen in 2016. He said a single journey on the LRT-1 may reach as high as P65.