PIDS: ‘Grueling commuter experience’ remains after Build, Build, Build

December 23, 2022 | 9:59am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines, still lagging behind most of its peers in Southeast Asia in overall infrastructure, continues to suffer from inadequate and poor quality road and rail transport infrastructure, an academic analysis of qualitative and quantitative indicators found. 

In a discussion paper entitled “Road and Rail Transport Infrastructure in the Philippines: Current State, Issues, and Challenges,” the state-run Philippine Institute of Development Studies said that many of the targets in the transportation sector outlined in the Philippine Development Plan for 2017 to 2021 were not met.

PIDS pointed to Congressional introductions and fast-tracked executive approvals as key issues holding back the development of the country’s transport system. 

“The Philippines continues to suffer from inadequate and poor quality road and rail transport infrastructure…[Load factor data] only confirms the commuters’ grueling experiences of congestion and long queues,” PIDS said.

“It is also evident that commuters’ woes remain given the incidents on train delays, the reports on long queues and congestion and the data on high load factors.”

The MRT-3 along EDSA has been operating beyond its capacity since 2004, ferrying some 500,000 people daily, or 142% more than its 350,000-passenger capacity. Since 2010, both the LRT-1 and MRT-3 have eclipsed the target average load factor of 60% identified by the Japanese Internat