This is a part of IBON’s Transport Series which aims to describe the problems in the sector and come up with viable and sustainable solutions. Each part is focused on one aspect of the transport crisis, especially in Metro Manila and its environs where it manifests. Each part does not aim to be exhaustive but to raise questions for further research and discussion, and hopefully, proposals for meaningful changes.
The Transport Series recognizes that the transport mess is complex and only reflects an economy and economic planning that do not serve the majority of the population. It is framed within IBON’s very critique of neoliberalism that has taken over the Philippine government’s visioning of so-called Philippine development but has only caused our long-term economic decline.
If the transport crisis has to be resolved in the realm of policymaking, it should be radically and comprehensively placed within the principle of people-centered economics – the kind of policymaking that genuinely promotes sustainable development. The transport crisis, after all, is also just a symptom of a far more deep-seated crisis of Philippine underdevelopment.
This part of the IBON’s Transport Series describes the mess, including government’s official transport policies.