MMDA shuns traffic czar suggestion: 'No need to do that'

MANILA — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority on Wednesday rejected a business group's suggestion to appoint a traffic czar to address the country's perennial traffic woes.

Speaking on TeleRadyo Serbisyo, MMDA general manager Procopio Lipana said that there was "no need" to name a traffic czar, given the government's continuous efforts to mitigate traffic problems. 

"Ang pangunahing problema 'yung ating infrastructure sapagkat talagang may kakulangan tayo sa road network kung ihahambing sa dami ng sasakyan," Lipana said.

"Massive naman ang infrastructure project ng gobyerno. Nandiyan ang Skyway, subway, rail system. 'Yung MRT-7 malapit nang matapos… With those projects pag natapos ay malaking ginhawa niyan sa mga mananakay," he also said.

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In a statement on Monday, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) asserted that there was a traffic crisis in Metro Manila, which topped a transportation data specialist's list of metro areas with the worst traffic in 2023.

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MAP said the government should recognize that the traffic crisis is the result of a failure in traffic management.

It added that a traffic czar should be appointed by the president and given full powers to mobilize, direct, and deploy existing government resources to ease traffic in the metro.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) earlier reported that billions of pesos are lost from the economy daily due to Metro Manila's traffic congestion.