These past few weeks, the issue focusing about the country’s capital city having

the presence of transportation crisis suddenly fired up and became controversial. The
issue indeed gained so much attention and received a lot of different reactions such as
arguments and opinions coming from both the government officials and the citizens.
The issue became the center of the argument between those two parties, the
government and the citizens, who have a very contradicting view towards the said
issue, the government, who are continuously denying that there is a transportation crisis
happening in Metro Manila and the citizens who, in contrary, believes that indeed the
idea of Metro Manila having a crisis concerning the transportation is true. However the
question is, whose view is correct and is factual? Is it the view of those government
officials who have their own luxurious wheels to ride on and are accompanied by their
escorts while traveling? Or is it the view of those citizens who are lining up for how
many hours and dealing with those hassles and stressful situations daily? Does
transport crisis is really occurring in Metro Manila? Well I believe it is and there are a lot
of facts and evidences that supports my stand.

As I have mentioned earlier, the government and its officials are still in denial
about the issue of Metro Manila having a transportation crisis. Despite of the problem
we are facing in regards to the sudden malfunctions of our train systems and the
continuing disturbance of heavy traffic to the commuters, they still strongly believes that
the situation is stable and is under control. They believe that the present situation of the
transportation in Metro Manila is far from being called as a crisis. Even the presidential
spokesman, Salvador Panelo, have the same idea towards the topic. He then released
a statement saying, “What do they mean by transportation crisis? I just see traffic. There
is transportation, we all manage to get a ride,” which clearly shows that they are not
considering the situation of today’s transportation system as a crisis. He then added it
with another statement saying that, “People get to where they need to go. There is a
solution here, if you want to arrive early at your destination, then you go there earlier,”
which they think the solution might be and which received a lot of violent reactions from
the crowd.

Others also believes that the country’s capital city is just suffering from a traffic
crisis and not transport crisis which is actually supported by some government officials,
specifically Salvador Panelo, based on his statements. They believe that traffic crisis is
far different from transport crisis. They define transport crisis as lack of transportation
that the commuters can use to be able to go to their desired destination which they
believe is not happening but only traffic.

In the other hand, there are still factors indicating that there is a crisis in regards
to transportation in Metro Manila. Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr., states
that the current situation of the transportation in Metro Manila can be considered now as
a crisis. According to dictionaries (Merriam Webster Dictionary), a crisis is a difficult or
dangerous situation that needs a serious attention and the current situation of the
transportation systems of the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila, perfectly fits this
definition. I do not know why the government are strongly denying the situation where in
fact there are a lot of existing factors on how actually the transportation crisis in Metro
Manila evolved that clearly proves that transportation crisis is really existing in the said
area.

One significant factor behind transport crisis happening in Metro Manila is the
Rapid Urbanization. Primitivo Cal, a former executive director at UP Planning and
Development Research Foundation Inc., states in his research that urbanization is
primarily focused in Metro Mania. Based on 2010 census of population (NSO, 2012),
Metro Manila registered a population of 11,855,975 which is 13% of the total population
of the country. Due to the increase in urbanization, most business districts are also
located within the area resulting to traffic congestion and low level of mobility then later
on as crisis in transportation.

Transport crisis is indeed present in Metro Manila. Even Panelo, who strongly
disagree with this idea have experienced the hard situation of transportation when he
accepted the challenge of the people after his statement. “It took me a long time to wait
for jeepneys because they were packed. They were always packed,” Panelo said in a
certain radio interview which actually indicates that there is a lack of transportation
within the area which is actually the definition of transport crisis.

Unequal ratio of Metro Manila’s roads to the number of vehicles and the
breakdowns of its trains had worsen the situation of thousands of commuters and ended
up hours late for work, school or etc. The roads we have right now can no longer
support the high volume of vehicles every day and the trains which was the little hope of
commuters to go to their destinations faster had failed. The recent malfunctions of the
train system caused rail networks to stop their operations resulting in an unwanted
unload of passengers in the track which is a very embarrassing situation.” The most
serious situation now is the LRT 2. The repairs will require 9 moths, that will surely
affect thousands of commuters,” as said by Reyes, Bayan Secretary.

In conclusion, I believe that there is transport crisis in Metro Manila. No matter

how the government and its officials deny the existence of transport crisis in Metro
Manila, the evidences will prove itself. Panelo’s and the administration’s refusal to
accept the fact that there really is a crisis because of such reasons, like people can still
to get to their destinations anyway is a non-sense. Whether it is a transportation crisis or
not, the fact that thousands of people are suffering from it daily, this should be solved
quickly. If this will not be taken seriously, it is expected that the country’s capital city will
be at a standstill. The waiting hours would not be just hours but maybe almost a day,
just maybe. I hoping that we will not go that far. Transportation crisis should be stopped.