Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte sets sights on fixing Manila’s nightmarish traffic jams
A survey by the GPS-based navigation app Waze last year found that Manila had the worst traffic on Earth, with Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Jakarta not far behind.
The Philippines’ tough-talking president-elect has vowed to wipe out crime – and now he plans to tame the grinding traffic gridlock of Manila through the imposition of emergency powers.
Nicknamed “The Punisher” for his crime-busting crusade as mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte may have his work cut out to defeat the traffic chaos of the Southeast Asian nation’s capital.
The image of the Philippines has been damaged because of the traffic. If this is not a crisis, what is a crisis?
A survey by the GPS-based navigation app Waze last year found that Manila had the worst traffic on Earth, with Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Jakarta not far behind.
“The image of the Philippines has been damaged because of the traffic,” said Arthur Tugade, who will become transport minister when Duterte takes office next week. “If this is not a crisis, what is a crisis?”
He told a gathering of business leaders in Davao that under the emergency decree authorities will be able to open gated residential neighbourhoods to siphon vehicles away from clogged main roads.
They would also be able to bypass bureaucracy to spend directly on upgrading highways and on property for new roads.
He gave few other details of the plan, which he said was being prepared by legal experts for presentation to Congress, but assured his audience it would not be applied “whimsically or capriciously”.