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Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms and

Innovations in Metro Manila, Philippines

Chapter · May 2023

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-8726-7_9

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Beating the Traffic: Civil Society
Participation in Transport Reforms
and Innovations in Metro Manila,
Philippines

Gina Rocafort Gatarin

Abstract Traffic congestion is synonymous with Metro Manila, the capital of the
Philippines. With a population of almost 13 million people, travel usually takes a
grueling amount of time as they traverse the gridlocked roads and cram into the
very limited supply of public transport modes. Meanwhile, cars reign supreme in
occupying much of this metropolis’s hardly expanding road networks. While the
government, foreign creditors, and big corporations plan for new and expensive
transport infrastructure and public utility vehicle modernization as ways to solve the
traffic problem, they tend to focus only on increasing economic gains and priori-
tizing technocratic expertise in transport planning and decision-making. They tend
to marginalize the meaningful participation of civil society in co-creating transport
solutions. This is why this research provides examples of good practices of collabora-
tive initiatives to address traffic problems. Through my interviews with government
transport agencies, private sector representatives, and civil society, as well as my
auto-ethnographic account navigating around Metro Manila’s complicated transport
system, I present two examples of civil society-led transport reform initiatives in
Pasig City. These examples contribute to reconstituting urban transport as a project
of “shared responsibility” among the diverse constituents of the transport system. It
builds upon a post-development discourse and the urbanism of Jane Jacobs in under-
standing modernity and urban development. In this way, the research contributes
to how meaningful collaboration in transport reforms and innovations can make
possible sustainable and less interventionist solutions to the transport problems of
metropolitan cities in the Global South.

Keywords Civil society · Metro manila · Philippines · Traffic · Urban transport

G. R. Gatarin (B)
Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Penrith NSW2751, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 143
D. Mookherjee et al. (eds.), Urban Transformational Landscapes
in the City-Hinterlands of Asia, Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8726-7_9
144 G. R. Gatarin

1 Introduction

Traffic is the top concern of daily urban life among Filipinos (DOTr and GIZ 2016:
1). This is particularly true in the country’s capital, Metro Manila. Its roads transform
into giant parking lots, called “carmageddon”, especially during rush hours. With 13
million people, its fragmented transport system cannot accommodate the increasing
demand for mobility. Factors that contribute to its worsening congestion include
population growth, poorly maintained rail and road infrastructure, increased private
vehicle usage, limited spaces for non-motorized transport, and lack of coherent and
clear transport policies and plans, (see Regidor and Aloc 2017; Napalang and Regidor
2015; Manasan and Mercado 1999).
In 2014, a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study estimated that
traffic congestion costs Metro Manila a daily net loss of Php 2.4 billion (US$52
million) and might increase to Php 6 billion (US$130 million) if no significant
measures are taken by 2030 (JICA 2014). Another commissioned study by the ride-
sharing scheme Uber in 2017 ranked Metro Manila as having the third-worst traffic
in Southeast Asia with commuters stuck for an average of 66 min per day (Rappler
2017). Also, in 2017, the country was ranked in the Driver Satisfaction Index of
the traffic and navigation application Waze as the worst place to drive among the 39
countries studied (Camus 2017).
There have been many plans over the past 40 to 50 years for Metro Manila’s
urban transport system, mainly through studies initiated by international development
institutions (see Regidor and Aloc 2017; Napalang and Regidor 2015; Rimmer 1986).
Their usual emphases are infrastructure’s contribution to economic growth and global
competitiveness that can foster development. They mainly focus on the construction
of transport infrastructure and the implementation of technological solutions targeted
to improve mobility through faster vehicular movement and increased road capacity.
However, their implementation has been very difficult to sustain.
These are top-down solutions championed by foreign creditors, large corporations,
and government administrations, which change every six years. With these numerous
stakeholders involved, “fragmented responsibility “(Rimmer 1986) in transport
governance became the norm. The overlapping roles of institutions tend to evade
transparency and accountability. Furthermore, the voices of transport providers, such
as the drivers and operators of public utility vehicles and car manufacturers and asso-
ciations, are more amplified in transport decision-making. Meanwhile, the heteroge-
neous “public”, those who commute through public and active transport (i.e., walking
and cycling), have very limited spaces for meaningful participation (see Cariño 2007;
Fischer 2000).
For these reasons, I argue that for urban transport challenges to be addressed
sustainably, the economic domain must not be the sole focus of solutions. The
urban transport development agenda must acknowledge the political and cultural
domains, alongside rethinking of the economic and ecological domains. To develop
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 145

this agenda, transport reforms and innovations must involve meaningful collabora-
tion with the vibrant civil society environment in the Philippines and optimize local
innovations.
From this viewpoint, the study is a modest contribution in understanding the role
of meaningful participation of civil society in making complex transport decisions
(Fischer 2000: xi). To contextualize the spaces and role of civil society participation,
I shall discuss in the next section how it evolved in the governance and development
landscape in the Philippines. This is followed by two illustrations of civil society-led
transport reforms and innovations in Pasig City, Metro Manila. Pasig City presents
a rich context as it spans over 34.32 square kilometers or 3432 hectares with a
population of 755,300 in 2015 (Pasig City 2018). It has been suffering from severe
traffic congestion and air pollution for many years.
I draw the Pasig City illustrations from an auto-ethnographic account on Metro
Manila’s urban transport system and 20 qualitative interviews with representatives of
government transport agencies, the private sector, and civil society. These interviews
encompass a wide range of pertinent stakeholders providing rich insights in solving
Metro Manila’s transport problems. The illustrations from Pasig describe a paradigm
shift from the regime of top-down governance and fragmented responsibility toward
a “shared responsibility (Young 2006). Drawing inspiration from post-development
theory, I challenge the myopic government transport agenda that only sees transport
solutions as a way to achieve economic growth and global competitiveness, with
people’s quality of life as an afterthought. I want to move beyond solutions that tend
to be embedded in the development experience and practices in the West (Escobar,
1995), as well as the geopolitical ambitions of China and Japan (see Wu and Chong
2018; Potter 1997). With this at hand, the study provides some watersheds of hope,
which may inspire more positive engagements in the cities of the Global South in
tackling urban mobility challenges.

2 Civil Society Participation in the Philippines

Civil society in the Philippines is a major player in the development process both at the
national and the local levels. Representative stakeholder groups come in many forms:
“grassroots organizations, cause-oriented and sectoral groups, mass movements, and
non-government organizations” (Mojares 2006: 35). Their participation in reforming
state policies and ensuring community participation evolved in ways that make their
involvement one of the most vibrant and advanced in the world (ADB 2013: 2).
The socio-political context for civil society participation in the Philippines is a
major product of the struggle against the authoritarianism of the Marcos era (1965–
1986). Emerging from the 1987 Constitution, the provisions for “people power” in
governance became tenets of the democratic government that followed the Marcos
period (Cariño 2007: 95). According to van Naerssen (2001: 680), such democratic
government, which is open to a participatory character of civil society, is a major
precondition for their existence and success.
146 G. R. Gatarin

Participation by civil society in governance is reinforced also by decentraliza-

tion as mandated by the Local Government Code of 1991 and the introduction of
President Fidel Ramos’ administration (1992–1998) of the party list system in 1998.
Dennis Rondinelli (in Cariño 2007: 93) argues that decentralization has been a key
feature of the post-authoritarian period in the Philippines, which institutionalizes
“citizen participation in development planning and management”. Meanwhile, the
party list system allots to marginalized groups 20% of the total number of seats at the
House of Representatives, filled through proportional representation (Lewis 2013:
38). This addresses concerns of marginalized populations as politicians from elite
backgrounds, who dominate elected positions, tend to be Janus-faced in supporting
reforms (Swyngedouw 2005).
According to Shatkin (2000: 2358–2359), two justifications for decentralization
and participation are as follows: (1) a neoliberal view of reducing the power of the
national government for a more cost-effective and efficient service delivery and (2)
a political economy premise that community groups deliver more sustainable and
appropriate development outcomes to fill local needs. In the first view, it is note-
worthy that institutions like the World Bank, which was a “gatekeeper” of orthodox
modernization driven by a centralized state, prescribe these principles of democ-
racy to attain development using the apolitical term “governance” (Cariño 2007:
92). The second view also has its complexities since participation of civil society is
prone to corruption, as illustrated by controversies around pork barrel funds. Right or
wrong, there is a perception that by channeling government funds to deliver services,
certain politicians have connived with some fly-by-night or dummy non-government
organizations (NGOs), to steal from the public coffers.
In relation to transport issues, civil society usually plays the role of watchdog to
reduce corruption, project delays, and clientelism prevalent in infrastructural projects
such as road construction (see Dañguilan Vitug 1998). Here lie the shaky grounds
of civil society participation. Even though the state enables spaces for participa-
tion, it also needs policing. Some interesting illustrations are seen around the adop-
tion of civil society participation in open government initiatives, such as bottom-up
budgeting (Bu B) and undertaking citizens’ participatory audits (Open Government
Partnership 2015 in Cruz et al. 2019: 11). This situation has then created a pressing
dilemma for civil society on “whether or not, and to what degree, to cooperate with
government agencies” (van Naerssen 2001: 678).

3 Civil Society Initiatives in Transport Reforms

and Innovations

Despite the Philippines having one of the most vibrant environments for civil society
participation around the world, organized groups that engage with transport issues
tend to be exclusive to transport providers. However, a growing number of concerned
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 147

individuals in recent years have started to establish informal groups to find solu-
tions to the worsening transport situation. They are mostly volunteers who have
worked or are still engaged with government and international development institu-
tions. Others have a background in information technology, engineering, urban plan-
ning, project management, law, community organizing, and environmental protec-
tion. Their engagement is primarily motivated by the perception that the millions of
people who experience the daily Carmageddon and endure the sacrifice of being a
“warrior” to survive public transport commuting are not given the voice they deserve.
Many of the civil society groups that I encountered during my field research
attempt to form coalitions with like-minded individuals and organizations to engage
with government, academia, and the private sector. Examples of their engagements
include the crafting of policy papers and proposals that will help government agen-
cies. To illustrate such engagements, I shall share two examples of civil society-led
transport reform and innovation in the busy Ortigas central business district (CBD),
Pasig City. These are the Bayanihan sa Daan initiative, adopted in the implementa-
tion of carless weekend along the F. Ortigas Jr. Road (formerly Emerald Avenue),
and the walkable Pearl Drive initiative.

3.1 Bayanihan sa Daan Through Carless Weekends

Bayanihan sa Daan (Collective Heroism on the Road) is a civil society-led road-

sharing movement convened by the Filipino environmental lawyer Antonio “Tony”
Oposa, Jr.1 through the Share the Road Movement. Bayanihan sa Daan espouses
a 50–50 road-sharing principle—50% of the road will be allocated to sidewalks,
bicycle lanes, and urban gardens while the other 50% will be for the organized trans-
port system (public utility vehicles and private vehicles) (Walkability Asia 2014).
In February 2014, the Share the Road Movement, together with civil society groups
(National Bicycle Organization, Clean Air Asia, and Partnership for Clean Air), ordi-
nary citizens, and Filipino senators (Loren Legarda, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino
IV, and Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Jr.) filed a petition for a writ of kalikasan2 and
mandamus to the Supreme Court of the Philippines to bring back urban sanity on the
roads (Ayalin 2014).
Applying the Filipino tradition of bayanihan, wherein community members help
each other, usually in lifting a nipa house from one location to another, Bayanihan
sa Daan claims to work through a sandwich approach to achieving positive change

1 Tony Oposa is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Asia’s highest public service award or the Nobel
Peace Prize of Asia. He championed the principle of intergenerational responsibility in the landmark
case Minors Oposa v. Factoran, 1993. He filed petitions to the Philippine Supreme Court on behalf
of children and the future generations to take legal action to protect the environment and sued
government agencies for their inaction on cleaning Manila Bay. I spoke personally to Oposa, who
referred me to the Pasig City local government on the implementation of Bayanihan sa Daan.
2 The writ of kalikasan (nature) is a legal remedy that guarantees “the constitutional right to a

balanced and healthful ecology” (Republic of the Philippines Supreme Court 2010).
148 G. R. Gatarin

in society. The sandwich or bibingka3 approach utilizes a bottom-up or grassroots

movement of civil society, catalyzing the needed change, as well as a top-down
approach wherein the government initiates change (Interview with Oposa in Walka-
bility Asia 2014). With only 2% of the Philippine population owning private motor
vehicles but with such vehicles occupying most of the road space, Bayanihan sa
Daan invokes the protection of the law for the remaining 98%, discriminated against
through the lack of proper sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and a good public transport
system (Interview with Oposa in Walkability Asia 2014). It claims that roads are not
just for cars but also for people.
In its radical sense, it advocates for a “road diet”. It attempted to demonstrate the
road-sharing principle in one of Metro Manila’s major thoroughfares, the Epifanio
delos Santos Avenue (EDSA), in 2015. It showed the public the intensity of the traffic
crisis since EDSA has exceeded its capacity. According to the Metropolitan Manila
Development Authority (MMDA), EDSA can accommodate 160,000 vehicles per
direction per day, but it reaches as many as 260,000 vehicles per direction in car
volume daily (Clean Air Asia 2015).
Subsequently, the Pasig City local government was inspired and made the
Bayanihan sa Daan principle its policy. The Pasig City local government first learned
about the Bayanihan sa Daan initiative through the nationwide conference of envi-
ronment and natural resources office (ENRO). Pasig’s representative to the confer-
ence spoke to Oposa and made adjustments to the concept for local application. It
became the basis for implementation of carless weekend along F. Ortigas Jr. Road
in the Ortigas CBD.
Since Pasig City instituted its Green City Program in 2009, Bayanihan sa Daan
found stable grounds for practice. The Pasig Green City is a flagship program
of former mayor Robert “Bobby” Eusebio and the City Environment and Natural
Resources Office (CENRO) for the strengthening of the Pasig Command Communi-
cations and Control (C3) Center (Porio 2012: 21). The Pasig C3 serves as the “nerve
center” for traffic, emergency, and disaster situations (Porio 2012: 21).
During my interview with the Pasig CENRO representative, she emphasized that
the Pasig Green City is part of the “mayor’s vision” on environmental protection
in the next 50 years. The Pasig CENRO representative is referring to former mayor
Bobby Eusebio, whose family ruled Pasig for 27 years (1992–2019). It is interesting
to note then that Pasig’s successful implementation of the Bayanihan sa Daan rests on
the leadership of a local chief executive from a political dynasty who has perpetuated
control and power through advancing good local governance (see Porio 2012).
The Bayanihan sa Daan adaptation started with carless Sundays with an aim to
curb the growing number of smoke-belching vehicles added to Metro Manila’s roads,
which contribute to 60% of the air pollution (Pasig City Ordinance No. 13, Series
of 2011). Figure 1 shows F. Ortigas Jr. Road during a weekday. But, apart from
cutting down on emissions, it provided a space for family and community activities,
promoted pedestrianization, and contributed to decongestion of the city.

3 Bibingka is a Filipino rice cake that is traditionally cooked in a clay pot. Preheated coals are placed
at the top and bottom of the pot to cook it.
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 149

Fig. 1 F. Ortigas Jr. Road on a weekday (Source Roque 2019)

The carless road (see Fig. 2) compensated for insufficient public parks (Pasig
CENRO Representative, Personal Communication, March 06, 2019). Initially, some
business establishments along Emerald Avenue became concerned about closing the
road to motorized transport as it might lead to loss in revenue. However, the people
who have patronized the carless Emerald Avenue demanded more hours with roads
closed to vehicles and subsequently it changed to two days in 2017. As the CENRO
representative (Personal Communication, March 06, 2019) shared, “[f]irst, around
June, it was just 8AM, 6AM to 12 noon. Then, when the people clamored, they want
it to be 6AM to 6PM around October. Then, in December 2017, they agitated for the
program to be expanded to two days.”
In the same year, Bayanihan sa Daan was awarded the Galing Pook Award
in recognition of this sustainable transport initiative as an excellent innovation in
local governance. By 2018, the Pasig City local government decided to create its
own transport office, the City Transportation Development and Management Office
(CTDMO). The latter used to be only an ad hoc committee in the Pasig City council.
This office was created through a joint initiative with mayor Bobby Eusebio, which
continued during the term of his wife, mayor Maribel Eusebio (2013–2016) and
through the lobbying of senior citizens and people with disabilities (PWD) (Pasig
CTDMO Representative, Personal Communication, February 22, 2019).
CTDMO’s creation as a standalone transport office is a distinct move since most
Philippine cities and municipalities focus only on traffic management. CTDMO
150 G. R. Gatarin

Fig. 2 Carless weekend at F. Ortigas Jr. Road

holds the mandate to accommodate the growing transport services and sustainable
transport initiatives of the city. It has an active social media presence that announces
bus schedules and shares articles on inclusive and sustainable mobility. The carless
weekend project was delegated then from the CENRO to CTDMO. From F. Ortigas
Jr. Road, it has multiplied in many places around the city. The most recent one is
along Pearl Drive, which will be discussed in the next section.

3.2 Walkable Pearl Drive Initiative

Pearl Drive is another busy road in Pasig City’s Ortigas CBD. Most of the road
space is occupied by motorized vehicles and parking areas. Even its sidewalks have
become extensions for parking, which forces people to walk on the road. According
to a representative of the network Move, Move, Move People (3MP), the walk-
able Pearl Drive initiative started when members of the University of Asia and the
Pacific (UA&P) community attended a discussion about Implementing Rules and
Regulations (IRR) of the National Transport Policy (3MP Representative, Personal
Communication, January 14, 2019). These UA&P members identified Pearl Drive
to be a major project, so they launched an online petition in 2018 on the Web site
Change.org and gathered more than 6,000 signatures.
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 151

A group called Friends of Pearl Drive initiated the online signature campaign. It
is composed of residents and office workers of Barangay San Antonio (the village
where Pearl Drive is located) and the faculty, staff, and students of UA&P, who
urged the Pasig City local government, Barangay San Antonio officials, Ortigas &
Company, and Ortigas Center Association, Inc. to make Pearl Drive walkable. This
would be accomplished by constructing a linear park along the road’s creek side and
reclaiming the sidewalk spaces that had been converted to parking spaces by local
business establishments (Reysio-Cruz 2019).
By early 2019, petitioners were successful in closing Pearl Drive every third
weekend from January to March. The Friends of Pearl Drive, led by Philip Peckson,
were eventually supported by the officials of Barangay Antonio and the Pasig
CTDMO. A 200-m portion of the road became off-limits to vehicles to give space
to people (Reysio-Cruz 2019). Food stalls became available, and people were able
to savor community life in the road through the provision of a safe environment for
bicycles and pedestrians. MMDA traffic enforcers were also present to redirect the
flow of traffic. Like the carless weekend at F. Ortigas Jr. Road, the Pasig CTDMO
views the Pearl Drive initiative as a way to provide a de facto park amidst the “Ortigas
jungle of steel and concrete” (as cited in Reysio-Cruz 2019).
Most of the activities related to the Pearl Drive initiative are advertised through
social media, including Facebook. The latter became an active platform for the circu-
lation of information, such as the advertisement in Fig. 3. It was supplemented by
the launch of a photo contest open to the public called Click Your Byahe (Click
Your Travel). The subjects of photo entries included four categories: (1) overcoming
mobility challenges; (2) using public transport; (3) using non-motorized transport;
and (4) transport’s environmental impact. The photo exhibit was opened to the public
on January 17, 2019. With the media and public attention it received, plans have
surfaced from concerned individuals on how Walkable Pearl Drive will continue.

4 Beating the Traffic with Creativity

The worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila has massive impacts to all domains of
life—political, economic, cultural, and ecological (see James 2015). Its impact on the
political domain became prominent during the 2016 presidential campaign of current
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who promised to seek emergency powers from
Congress to tackle the traffic problem. He wanted to appoint a national traffic tsar to
centralize the authority in managing Metro Manila’s chaotic transport system (Peel
and Ramos 2016). Such is his platform to address the fragmented responsibility
that characterize the governance structure of the urban transport system. However,
Congress did not approve his plan. In 2019, Duterte claimed that this campaign
promise is the only one he was not able to fulfill. This is despite the rollout of the
ambitious Build, Build, Build (BBB) program that promises a “golden age of infras-
tructure” in the Philippines and the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program
(PUVMP).
152 G. R. Gatarin

Fig. 3 Advertisement for

the Walkable Pearl Drive
Initiative (Source Peckson
2019)

These programs of the Duterte administration view infrastructural and technolog-

ical solutions to Metro Manila’s transport issues as means to achieve economic growth
and global competitiveness. The BBB program, for example, has targeted infrastruc-
ture spending of Php 8–9 trillion (US$160–180 billion) from 2017 to 2022 (NEDA
et al. 2017). It aims to build urban railways, urban mass transport, and airports and
seaports within three to five years of Duterte’s term in office (NEDA et al. 2017) and
further develop Clark, in the north of Manila, to decongest the capital. Meanwhile,
the PUVMP is the largest non-infrastructural program of the Duterte administration.
It formulates solutions to the dreadful traffic situation and transport system around
route rationalization, fleet consolidation, and vehicle modernization.
Many aspects of the BBB Program have been criticized, including the shifting in
financing toward greater debt-taking, causing macroeconomic drawbacks on trade
balance and exchange rates, and its particular interest toward Chinese financing (Cruz
et al. 2019: 3). In a similar vein, some groups of drivers and operators of public utility
vehicles, such as the jeepney, criticize the PUVMP as being “anti-poor and profit-
oriented” (San Mateo in Westerman 2018). New units of modern vehicles are too
expensive for ordinary drivers and operators, thus are criticized as only a façade for
the corporatization of the transport sector.
In such a complex landscape of the traffic situation and transport issues, people are
left on their own to find ways to meet their mobility needs. The rising middle class
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 153

highly favors purchasing cars and motorcycles. These private motorized vehicles
have become the private solution to the public problem of the lack of a safe, reliable,
and efficient public transport system, aggravated by the hostility of the roads to pedes-
trians and cyclists (see Murphy and Hogan 2012). NEDA’s study called AmBisyon
Natin 2040, for example, shows that 77% of middle class Filipinos prefer to own a
car (NEDA n.d: 11).
With the addition of more motorized vehicles comes the impact to the ecological
domain, particularly indicated by worsening air pollution in the metropolis. 88% of
the air pollution around Manila comes from mobile sources (DENR-EMB n.d: 6).
Greenpeace Southeast Asia estimates that there were as many as 27,000 premature
deaths in the Philippines in 2018 due to fossil fuel air pollution (Farrow et al. 2020:
16).
Lastly, there is the impact on the cultural domain because even though millions
of people are affected and are complaining about the situation, their engagement to
change the situation is limited. This is despite conditions of openness to civil society
that enable greater political participation the Philippines, as noted earlier. Thus,
the intention of this research is to demonstrate how such civil society-led transport
reforms and innovations can provide creative ways of utilizing various platforms to
achieve positive change.
The Bayanihan sa Daan and walkable Pearl Drive initiatives in Pasig City illus-
trate that civil society can mobilize support within its sector, as well as from the
government and the private sector. These examples of civil society-led transport
initiatives are crucial to tame the magnitude of influence of technocrats (or what is
popularly known as “economic managers”) in government, foreign creditors, and
large corporations who dominate transport decision-making. They tend to be blind
to the impact of the massive upheaval caused by these solutions leading to displace-
ment in housing, livelihood, and sense of security, especially of the urban poor (see
Senate of the Philippines 2018; IBON Media 2017).
These examples illustrate the possibilities for a more collaborative approach to
address the conflicts that arise whenever transport plans are implemented and calls on
“a change in approach from all interests” (Booth and Richardson 2001: 143). They
come in a crucial time when Filipinos tend to view that the only source of “comfort-
able” travel is a car. Such vision of cars having the monopoly of the imagination for
mobility as shown in the AmBisyon Natin 2040 study, which manifests what Illich
(1973, as quoted in Inman 1997: 58) calls “radical monopoly”. This happens when
“one industrial production process exercises an exclusive control over the satisfac-
tion of a pressing need”. It curtails the people’s right to dignified travel as walking,
cycling, and river travel are eliminated from the city’s mobility options.
The collaboration of civil society representatives with local governments, national
agencies, and the private sector contributes to enabling their meaningful participation
by taking the role of a “critical friend”. They become ways to confront the fragmented
responsibility of distant and duplicitous government technocrats and politicians. This
is through the creative and meaningful participation of a civil society whose majority
does not have and does not want the car or private vehicles to be the sole means for
their mobility.
154 G. R. Gatarin

This creativity manifests in the strategic use of the law, creating networks with
relatively open-minded and progressive city and village council officials, social media
and online petition platforms, and taking advantage of volunteer clout. Creativity then
becomes a powerful tool to keep our cities afloat since it is the main problem that
our cities face. As the activist Jane Jacobs (2016: 219) said, “[o]ur trouble is not that
our cities, per se, are obsolete, but that they are no longer creative. This is the real
problem of cities: to remain creative.” The creativity in the Bayanihan sa Daan and
walkable Pearl Drive initiatives illustrates what Illich calls an “opportunity web”,
which can make use of life experiences as a way to address the detrimental effects
of modernity as in the case of the radical monopoly of the car. (Inman 1997: 58).
Furthermore, with a particularly strong online presence, these initiatives stand a
chance for individuals and groups to share information, advocacies, and activities
that can establish their values to be integrated in transport plans to aid planners in
making informed decisions (Majumdar 2017). They tackle civil society participation
in effecting positive social change through helping government agencies and officials
understand their mandate. This is by implementing policies and projects that are
not distant solutions to the traffic gridlock but as something familiar and close to
community need.
The Bayanihan sa Daan and walkable Pearl Drive initiatives can be seen as
practices that challenge what the post-development anthropologist Arturo Escobar
(2018: 4) calls “hegemony of modernity’s one-world ontology”. This is through the
creation of a wide horizon for the imagination of alternative mobilities that cater to the
most vulnerable—the pedestrians, cyclists, differently abled, elderly, and children.
They could be the actual realization of what Escobar (2018: 4) calls a “pluriverse”
that provides experimentations for “reimagining and reconstructing local worlds”.
In such an alternative world, these initiatives are active platforms for beating
the traffic through a “shared responsibility (see Young 2006) of the heterogeneous
constituents of the urban transport system. It enables possibilities on co-making
urban mobilities, through giving way (bigayan) which after all is part of the Filipino
practice of sharing the road. It might be inspiring heroism in every individual and
local community (bayanihan) that could bring forth new frontiers to re-imagine
mobility in our cities.

5 Conclusion: Toward a Shared Responsibility

Although Metro Manila’s traffic situation is worsening and its urban transport issues
continuously multiply, it is not a totally hopeless case. There are many possible solu-
tions. They tend, however, to mainly focus on infrastructure and technological inter-
ventions with certain visions and interests that are usually embedded in a top-down
approach from government technocrats, foreign creditors, and large corporations.
The emphasis is usually on economic growth and global competitiveness with the
people’s welfare as only an afterthought.
Beating the Traffic: Civil Society Participation in Transport Reforms … 155

This research asserts that beating Metro Manila’s traffic problems and dealing
with its many transport woes must not revolve just around these grand and expensive
solutions. The meaningful participation of civil society helps address these problems
through creating a safe, reliable, and efficient urban transport system. The mean-
ingful participation of civil society, as illustrated by the Bayanihan sa Daan and
walkable Pearl Drive initiatives, provides examples of good practices that do not
take civil society as mere participants in government consultations, who are often
invited just to comply with bureaucratic requirements. Instead, their participation
becomes meaningful through their involvement in the co-creation of initiatives to
find sustainable solutions to traffic problems.
These initiatives illustrate creative ways of re-imaging our relationality with our
streets. Such is a reminder of the struggles and the victories inspired by the life
of activism and community engagement of Jane Jacobs—that we should not lose
grasp of creativity in our cities. With such creativity in utilizing the provisions and
power of the law, online platforms, and the commitment of civil society groups and
individuals, there is hope that Metro Manila’s roads can be for the people. This is
through a transport system that is constituted of “vital communities” (Jacobs 2011)
that enable people to flourish since they are not restricted by car dependency.
In this way, the meaningful participation of civil society in conceptualizing and
sustaining urban transport reforms and innovations foster a “shared responsibility
“(Young 2006) approach to the complex urban transport issues of the metropolis.
Through collaborating with government agencies, the private sector, and academia,
there are possibilities for the community ownership of solutions. These ways of
addressing the gridlock through bringing back unacknowledged aspects of the polit-
ical and cultural domains in the arena of conversation—together with a rethinking
of economic and ecological domains—could open possibilities for addressing Metro
Manila’s urban transport crisis. Such shared responsibility involves a constant prac-
tice of negotiation and compromise, providing hope that a change on how we view
our streets can make an impact in creating livable communities, especially in the
cities of the Global South.

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