$3.6 B lost annually from Metro traffic

THE Philippine government is losing $3.6 billion or P153 billion every year because of traffic congestion in Metro Manila, a lawmaker said on Friday.

Citing a report by the San Francisco-based Filipinas Magazine, Rep. Homer Mercado of 1-Utak party-list said that $1 billion is lost to wasted gasoline, electricity, man-hours and hiring of traffic aides, while $2.6 billion is squandered to missed or reduced sales and investment disincentives.

The same report stated that losses exceeded $36 billion in ten years considering that the average speed of a vehicle in Metro Manila (National Capital Region) has slowed to 12.6 kilometers per hour today from 18 kph ten years ago.

The worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila, Mercado said, is caused by the proliferation and operation of colorum and vehicles with multiple plate numbers based on a 2009 Commission on Audit (COA) report. It showed that COA asked the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to impound a total of 40,754 colorum vehicles believed to have been given license plates assigned to public utility vehicles (PUVs) that were granted franchises to operate.

COA later found out that the Land Transportation Office registered 297,769 units of vehicles for hire in 2009—more than 255,015 units which were granted franchises to operate as PUVs by the LTFRB.

“How can something like this happen if LTFRB regulation provides that vehicles for hire cannot be registered without a confirmation of a franchise letter coming from the LTFRB,” Mercado said. –Llanesca T. Panti, Manila Times