IN a recent paper published by UP professor Teodoro Mendoza, the cost of excessive flooding in Metro Manila is estimated to range from P82 billion to P121 billion for 2025 alone. For the entire country, the economic loss runs from P700 billion to P900 billion.
In addition to these sizeable flood-related losses, the cost of economic losses caused by traffic congestion in Metro Manila in an ordinary day is estimated at about P3.5 billion a day based on JICA and ADB studies. With 240 working days in a year in the Philippines, excluding the public holidays and weekends, this amounts to P840 billion a year.
As Metro Manila generates one third of the country’s GDP, the economic losses suffered by the nation’s capital reverberate across the entire country. The estimate of Metro Manila’s losses caused by floods and traffic congestion may reach a P1-trillion-a-year mark if the massive amount of lost work hours, frequency of business interruptions, school disruptions and tourism and mobility losses were taken into account. Add the numerous declared national and local holidays to further imagine the lack of productivity.
To exponentially aggravate these losses, corrupt government officials and their voracious cronies plunder another trillion pesos from the national budget. Two trillion pesos of losses add up to the curse of patronage politics, neglect, gross incompetence and insatiable greed of our supposed public servants. The party who bears this curse are the Filipinos of the streets sweating under the intense heat of the sun, braving the heavy downpour of the monsoon season, and enduring hunger and thirst when stuck for countless hours of traffic.
In the same paper, Mendoza laments how lack of vision, misallocation of resources, lack of accountability and, of course, corruption the scale of which this generation of Filipinos had never before seen nor experienced. As many scholars and logical people understand, the solutions are staring all of us in our faces. Regrettably, the solutions are so obvious that those capable of changing things can create huge positive impact if they wish to do so.
Over the years, Filipinos relied heavily on government to bail them out of these social, economic and environmental problems. But instead, government bureaucracy became the source itself of magnifying plunder and inefficiency.
As Metro Manila generates more than 30 percent of the national GDP, the deterioration of Metro Manila’s economic power consequently creates a dangerous ripple effect nationwide. The concentration of economic activities in the capital creates a national risk that must be mitigated.
While the metropolis remains to be a vibrant capital, it is showing in the last few years, the increasing pressure on housing and land use. As more people migrate to Metro Manila, the price of real estate increases. Along EDSA alone, we witnessed the transformation of what used to be open spaces, industrial areas and institutional areas converted into residential, commercial and mixed uses. The POGO craze created an artificial and fleeting demand on real estate which immediately burst upon the Marcos administration’s banning of such activities. Gambling’s impact on real estate is not new. Las Vegas is a city built on the foundation of gambling and entertainment. But the property crisis that hit Macau in 2014-2015 should have served as an early warning on the unsustainability of a gambling-driven demand on real estate.
More than the price of housing, the increase in food prices and basic services in Metro Manila makes living in the metropolis increasingly beyond the rich of ordinary Filipinos. The price of food in Singapore is twice the cost of the food in Metro Manila. But measured in income earned, Singaporeans earn 5 times the income of a resident of Metro Manila. Hence, for a Singaporean, the cost of food for his family in Singapore is still approximately 5 times cheaper than that of ordinary Filipinos living in Metro Manila. As the economy continues to suffer from the weakening peso, the price of imported food (which comprises almost 50 percent of our consumption) becomes more expensive. Metro Manila is becoming more expensive to ordinary Filipinos.
What can be done?
The first order of the day is to prevent floods from happening so frequently. Some of these efforts will involve rehabilitating the upland watersheds of Sierra Madre, ban quarrying in the uplands, clearing the silted rivers, creeks and esteros, build water detention basins across the metropolis, and stop the reclamation of Manila Bay to allow the water from the uplands to drain unimpeded into the sea. A major initiative must be done to stop the illegal reclamations of Laguna de Bay, desilt its shallow lake beds to increase its carrying capacity and transform this biggest freshwater lake into what it was originally created by God for — to be the largest water reservoir of the Philippines to store the flood waters and to provide for the fresh water needs of more than 30 million Filipinos.
The second is to invest more in mass transport and mobility — not by building more roads but making the roads more pedestrianized and access to mass transport easier and more affordable. A major initiative must be made to pass a law requiring lot owners to provide at least six meters easement on their land in exchange for higher floor area ratio (FAR). This easement will allow ground movement and access with tree-lined streets and arcades for people to move around the city. The trees will serve not only as canopy for shade but also for slowing rainwater velocity that causes floods.
And for a long-term solution, we need to masterplan for sustainability and develop second-tier cities and even the local municipalities to distribute economic activity across the country.
