By WENDELL VIGILIA
September 23, 2017

HOW do you solve a problem like Metro Manila?

An administration lawmaker believes national government has to make the ultimate sacrifice of moving its offices away from the capital to substantially decongest it and improve the people’s quality of living.

Rep. Alfredo “Albee” Benitez (PDP-Laban, Negros Occidental), chair of the House committee on housing and urban development, has filed House Bill No. 18 which seeks to relocate the seat of government and establish an administrative capital city outside Metro Manila, possibly in Clark, Pampanga.

Benitez said overpopulation, traffic congestion, and high vulnerability to natural disasters have made Metro Manila or the National Capital Region “a pariah among world cities.”

“There is therefore a need to rethink and develop a master plan that will decongest Metro Manila,” said Benitez, a son of the late Jose Conrado “Jolly” Benitez, deputy minister for human settlements during the Marcos administration.

Benitez said the relocation of capitals has been undertaken in several countries, including Malaysia which has built a new administrative capital in Putrajaya to ease decongestion in Kuala Lumpur.

He also cited Brazil, which in 1960 inaugurated Brasilia which he said “stands as a prime example of modern urban planning and the only city in the world built in the 20th century to be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Even South Korea is in the process of transferring most of its government offices to a new administrative capital called Sejong City, Benitez said.

The bill cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority which shows Metro Manila is home to 11.9 million people in 2010, making it one of the world’s most densely populated cities.

According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, traffic congestion cost P2.4 billion daily in lost productivity in 2012 alone.

“The amount could balloon to as much as P6 billion daily if the situation is not addressed by 2030,” the bill said.

Worse, Benitez said, Metro Manila also sits above a faultline which could trigger massive and destructive earthquakes.

The bill cited a 2014 poll by Swiss Re, an international reinsurance company, which found Metro Manila to be the world’s second riskiest city in terms of natural disasters waiting to happen.

Similarly, the Fifth Natural Hazards Risk Atlas (2015) by Verisk Maplecroft placed Manila as the fourth most vulnerable city to disasters like earthquakes and typhoons.

Benitez said another major concern is the increasing number of informal settler families (ISFs) in Metro Manila, noting that out of the 1.5 million ISFs in the country, nearly 600,000 are in the NCR.

“The off-city relocation programs of the government for the ISFs have only led to failure because many of the relocatees return to NCR because the relocation areas are far from their source of income,” he said.

Benitez said all of these problems stress the need “to rethink and develop a master plan that will decongest Metro Manila.”

HB No. 18 proposes the creation of an Administrative Capital City Planning Commission to lead the development of a comprehensive plan to relocate the government agencies and establish an administrative capital city outside Metro Manila.

The commission, which will be under the Office of the President, will be tasked to study and recommend the transfer of the capital and permanent seat of government.

The bill, which is pending before the housing panel, tasks the commission to conduct a feasibility study of relocating the most of the government agencies outside Metro Manila.