How MMDA keeps public buses in line

Private cars take up the lion's share of the road spaces

Metro Manila Traffic Count 2012 | Infographics

First central bus depot in Manila opens as gov't moves to limit provincial buses

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) opened last month the first integrated terminal for provincial buses entering the capital from Cavite and Batangas provinces. Commuters, however, continue to bear the brunt of this new scheme aimed at limiting buses plying Metro Manila routes.

Launched on August 6 this year, the bus hub called Southwest Interim Provincial Terminal (SWIPT) dispatches 1, 000 provincial buses bound for Cavite and Batangas in a day. It was no less than President Aquino who ordered it constructed along with two other terminals to be opened in Quezon City for buses coming from the north and Alabang, Muntinlupa City for buses from the south.

Last July 16, Aquino issued Administrative Order No. 40 authorizing MMDA, the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Transportation and Communications to construct and run the temporary terminals in preparation for the establishment of the permanent ones.

The new bus service system intends to decongest the main thoroughfares in the metropolis, particularly EDSA. How? By getting rid of the provincial buses that ferry thousands of commuters, mostly workers from the provinces around Metro Manila every day and replacing them with other vehicles-- city buses, AUVs, jeepneys and taxis.  Provincial buses which used to load and unload passengers anywhere in Metro Manila are only allowed up to the terminal.

Rush hour traffic crawls along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue, a major highway in Metro Manila. Both southbound and northbound lanes look like parking lots during traffic jams

In an Inquirer report, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the Philippines is losing P2.4 billion daily in potential income due to traffic congestion, citing a a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The time lost in traffic jams could have been spent on productive endeavors. 

The MMDA partly blames the perennial traffic woes of the metropolis to bus companies operating without terminals. Provincial buses stop and park anywhere to load and unload passengers.

One of the measures the Aquino administration has done to solve this is to have central terminals for provincial buses relocated on the outskirts of Metro Manila.  The 1.4-hectare Southwest Integrated Terminal sitting in the Uniwide Coastal Mall in Paranaque serves as a litmus test for the initial reaction of the public. While intention of the MMDA is good, the project was still met with opposition.

Long queues of passengers at the provincial terminal in Paranaque City called Southwest Integrated Interim Terminal

A line of Cavite- and Batangas-bound buses to be dispatched at the provincial terminal

City buses ferrying passengers up to the provincial terminal

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) opens a playground inside the bus terminal supposedly for the children of passengers at the terminal

Inconveniences to commuters

How does this project affect the commuters?

First, it made commuters' daily trips more costly and the travel time longer. Second, they have to walk a few more meters to ride another public transport instead of boarding just one bus from Manila to their destinations in Cavite or Batangas.

A resident of Naic, Cavite, Nida Sarmiento, 48, is traveling to Manila twice a week to process the requirements in her application for a job abroad.  She said from an hour-travel from Naic to Manila during the previous system, now she had to stay three hours on the road because she had to transfer from one bus to another.

Sarmiento's wish? Go back to the old system where she can take a bus at Lawton Avenue in Manila. She said the government should first establish an efficient mass transit before it bans provincial buses in Metro Manila.