Manila’s traffic jams are so bad, even President Rodrigo Duterte has been forced to admit failure
- A 2015 survey by GPS-based navigation app Waze found that Manila had the world’s worst traffic congestion
- The government has made some headway on an US$180 billion programme to modernise roads, railways and airports
It’s 3.30am in the Philippines and much of San Jose Del Monte is fast asleep. Flashlight in hand, street sweeper Alejandro Galasao, 58, navigates a labyrinth of alleys to a main road to catch a bus to the capital Manila 30km away.
He has to wake up in the middle of the night for a job that doesn’t start until 6am. Traffic is so bad in Manila that if he leaves any later, there’s no way he will clock in on time.
“If I go to work at rush hour, it would take me three hours,” Galasao said. “This is the only job I know. Even if I find something else, I doubt I would earn any better.”
Metro Manila, a sprawl of 16 cities fused together by outdated infrastructure, is creaking under the weight of millions of vehicles, owing largely to economic growth of more than 6 per cent a year since 2012.
Urban rail coverage is limited, trains are prone to breakdowns and queues spill onto streets where exhaust fumes are intoxicating.