Investors urged to move out of MM
146,000 vehicles added yearly worsen congestion

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Businessmen here have warned of the inevitable over-congestion of Metro Manila amid their estimates that 13,000 vehicles monthly or 146,000 vehicles per year are added to its roads.

“The only way to solve this is for investments in Metro Manila to move elsewhere, such as the proposed Metropolitan Clark area with Clark Freeport and its international airport as pivot,” said leading car distributor and Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Pam- Cham) Chairman Emeritus Levy P. Laus.

Laus, founder of the Laus Group of Companies and founder of Northern and Central Luzon’s top car distributor Carworld Inc. said that 13,000 monthly addition of vehicles in Metro Manila means the metropolis would have to accommodate 146,000 more vehicles per year.

Laus noted indications that congestion in Metro Manila has effected “reverse migration” wherein businesses in Quezon City and other northern parts of the metropolis hire employees or workers from Central Luzon provinces, since traffic is faster between the provinces and northern Metro Manila.

“Because of traffic, travel from other parts of the metropolis to northern Metro Manila takes longer,” he said.

Laus urged the government “to make a policy direction to encourage businesses and activities to move out of Metro Manila and go to the countrysides.”

He noted that while the Port of Manila is congested, the port in Subic Freeport has remained underutilized.

Laus also urged the government to fully develop the Clark International Airport at Clark Freeport amid congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). This, as he also urged the government to abandon plans to build another international airport at Sangley Point in Cavite.

“It will be too expensive and would require massive land reclamation. It’s a no-brainer that Clark should be the international airport,” he added.