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Reuters

Entertainment

Eloisa Lopez

Chaos, gridlock a daily ordeal for Manila's long-suffering commuters

Janice Sarad, 22, who works for a bank, sits inside a jeepney in Pasig City, Metro Manila, in Philippines, December 3, 2018. Apart from getting stuck in traffic, Sarad often struggles to get a jeepney going to her neighbourhood as very few jeepneys cover this route. "You have to push, shove, and run because everyone's trying to get a seat. On the train, everyone tries to sneak on so they don't have to wait. On the bus, there are usually no seats so you stand up the whole ride," she said. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

MANILA (Reuters) - It's 3.30 a.m. in the Philippines and much of San Jose Del Monte is fast asleep.

Flashlight in hand, street sweeper Alejandro Galasao, 58, navigates a labyrinth of alleys to a main road to catch a bus to the capital Manila 30 km (18.6 miles) away.

Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, rides a jeepney to the train station in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, Philippines, November 29, 2018. Emocling said usually the issue with his commute is not the road traffic, but the crowds of commuters. "Sometimes I wonder if I'm just being whiny. Maybe I'm not really struggling in my commute. But I also wonder if I've just gotten used to the struggle," he said. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

He has to wake up in the middle of the night for a job that doesn't start until 6 a.m.

Traffic is so bad in Manila that if he leaves any later, there's no way he will clock in on time.

"If I go to work at rush hour, it would take me three hours," Galasao told Reuters. "This is the only job I know. Even if I find something else, I doubt I would earn any better".

Vehicles queue in traffic along EDSA highway in Makati City, Philippines, February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Metro Manila, a sprawl of 16 cities fused together by outdated infrastructure, is creaking under the weight of millions of vehicles, owing largely to economic growth of more than six percent a year since 2012.

Urban rail coverage is limited, trains are prone to breakdowns and queues spill onto streets where exhaust fumes are intoxicating.

Quality of life is poor for many urban Filipinos, who spend a chunk of their day commuting.

An aquarium glows in the bedroom of Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, at his family home in Malabon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, October 15, 2018. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Janice Sarad works at a bank head office and leaves home four hours before work starts in Bonifacio Global City, a Manila business hub.

On a typical day, Sarad, 22, takes a train, a bus and two passenger jeeps to get to work.

"In the morning, it's even more difficult to commute because the pressure not to be late is there. You really have to fight your way in," she said.

Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, uses his phone on the train going to work in Manila, Philippines, November 29, 2018. Emocling often uses his travel time to read the news or draft his first article for the day. "Sometimes I really have to bring my work or my rest into my commute," he said. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Click on https://reut.rs/2U956uA for a related photo essay.

Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, waits for the train with other passengers at a train station in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, Philippines, October 15, 2018. Queues are often an issue in Emocling's commute, which sometimes take as long as 30 minutes to an hour. When the queue is unreasonably long, he takes a roundtrip to another station where the crowd is not as deep. "Instead of waiting, I'd rather spend more money because if I'm late to work, I lose more." Emocling said he once received only half of his salary because of the number of times he arrived late due to long queues. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

HEAVY TOLL

A 2015 survey by GPS-based navigation app Waze found that Manila had the world's worst traffic congestion, partly due to a tripling of annual car sales from a decade ago.

Oliver Emocling, 23, rides the train, but queues are so long that he arrives late often, and has been docked wages as punishment.

Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, leaves his neighbourhood in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, Philippines, November 29, 2018. Because of the long travel hours, Emocling not only lacks sleep, but also misses meals. "I usually don't get to eat breakfast or dinner unless I wake up really early, or eat out. When I get home, it's already 10 p.m., and my body is just craving sleep rather than food," he said. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

"When I get home, it's already 10 p.m.," said Emocling, who works at a magazine. "I could be using that time to sleep more, rest more. Instead, my time gets wasted".

The daily loss of business in Manila due to traffic woes has risen to 3.5 billion pesos ($67.2 million) in 2017 from 2.4 billion pesos ($46.1 million) in 2012, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday fixing Manila's traffic wasn't easy, adding that it was the only campaign promise he had failed to deliver.

Janice Sarad, 22, who works for a bank, leaves her neighbourhood to go to work, in Antipolo City, Rizal province, Philippines, November 26, 2018. Sarad leaves her home between 4:30-5:00 a.m., to arrive at her job that starts at 8:30 a.m. "In the morning, it's even more difficult to commute because the pressure not to be late is there. You really have to fight your way in. In the evening, it doesn't matter if you get home late," she said. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

He recently approved a law that encourages companies to support more employees to work from home.

The government is making some headway on an $180 billion program to modernize roads, railways and airports, including a subway system set to begin construction on Wednesday.

However, the building works are exacerbating snarl-ups.

Oliver Emocling, 23, who works for a magazine, sits at his desk at a publishing company in Makati City, in Metro Manila, in Philippines, October 15, 2018. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Ferdinand Tan, a 53-year-old wealth coach, lets his staff work from home and has modified his van to cope with traffic, turning it into a mobile office with a power supply, computer and even a foot massager.

"No one can really solve the traffic. So instead of complaining about it, I try to maximize (the time)," he said.

"I use unproductive time to be productive".