Issues and concerns

in cities under the

National Capital
Region
BY: KHRISHA ANNE A. DAVILLO
Poverty
The Philippine Statistics Authority
(PSA) report provides the
estimates of poverty incidence
using income data from the first
and second visit of the Family
Income and Expenditure Survey
(FIES) conducted in July 2015 and
January 2016, respectively.
 In 2015, the poverty incidence
of NCR was 3.9% with urban
population share of 28%. Thus, the
rest of urban areas (72%) was
estimated to have
urban poverty incidence of 14.5%
based on national
urban poverty incidence of 11.5%.
• There are 586 slums in Metro
Manila alone. These are homes
of the poor. But they remain
the frontier for evangelical
mission work.
• The United Nations says that
any person who lives on less
than USD1.25 (Php58) per day
is poor.
• In the Philippines, the poverty
level is USD 0.76 (Php38) per
day.
• 27.6 million Filipinos (33%) live
below the poverty standard.
• 12.2 million Filipinos (15%) live
below the subsistence
standard.
 The main causes of poverty in the country
include the following:
• low to moderate economic growth for the
past 40 years;
• weakness in employment generation and
the quality of jobs generated;
• failure to fully develop the agriculture
Causes of sector;
• high inflation during crisis periods;
Poverty • high levels of population growth;
• high and persistent levels of inequality
(incomes and assets), which dampen the
positive impacts of economic expansion;
and
• recurrent shocks and exposure to risks
such as economic crisis, conflicts, natural
disasters, and "environmental poverty."
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 Traffic
Congestion
Low inflation, low interest and easy access
to credit enabled the domestic
automotive industry to increase sales by
more than 24 percent in 2016, with total
sales of 359,572 units. For 2017, the
industry is expected to sell as many as
500,000 units. The figures do not
include motorcycles, the sales of which
reached 1 million in 2016.
In 2016 a total of 11.2 million motor
vehicles were registered with
the Land Transportation Office
(LTO), of which 2.5 million (28.7
percent) were in the National
Capital Region (NCR) and 8.7
million (71.27 percent) were in
other parts of the country.
The number of motor vehicles plying Metro
Manila’s roads continues to increase,
but the road network in the metropolis
has hardly increased. According to
some estimates, the NCR’s road
network of 4,755 kilometers should be
doubled to accommodate the vehicle
population.
 • Too many cars for the roadway
due to inadequate mass transit
options or other reasons.
Causes of • Obstacles in the road causing a
Traffic blockage and merger. These can
Congestion be any of the following:
• Double parking
• Road work
• Lane closure due to utility work
• Road narrowing down
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 • An accident
• Traffic signals out of sync many times
on purpose or occasionally when the
computers are malfunctioning.
Causes of • Inadequate green time
Traffic • Too many pedestrians crossing not
permitting cars to turn
Congestion
• Too many trucks on the road due to
inadequate rail freight opportunities
• Overdevelopment in areas where the
mass transit system is already
overcrowded and the road system is
inadequate
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 • We could have fewer cars and trucks on
the road by increasing mass transit options
and encouraging rail freight.
• Police should give tickets to double
parking that causes traffic congestion and
not merely view summonses as a means to
raise revenue.
How to • Schedule as much roadwork as possible for

prevent the middle of the night or when the road is

not busy, although there always will be
some roadwork that causes some
congestion.
• Again, all we can do regarding accidents is
to try to prevent them. Once they occur,
traffic congestion usually cannot be
avoided if traffic volumes are high.
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 • If there is inadequate green time,
that should be corrected, if
possible, which may not be that
easy to do.
How to • The only way to reduce the
numbers of pedestrians crossing
prevent at an intersection is to either add a
mid-block crossing or build a
pedestrian overpass.
• Add more trains and buses or
don’t overdevelop.
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