MMDA budget slashed even as Metro Manila rated "below average" in EIU study

Metro Manila is the only major Southeast Asian city to be rated "below average" in the recently-published Asian Green City Index. The study was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit to measure environmental sustainability across 22 Asian cities and was commissioned by Siemens.

City-state Singapore rated "well above average" while former peers of Manila in Southeast Asia Jakarta, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur rated an "average" in the index. Manila counted itself in the "below average" bucket among the likes of Hanoi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. The only city faring worse is Karachi garnering a "well below average" rating.

All this is a timely revelation considering that the budget of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) had recently been slashed from Php2.76 billion to just Php981 million by the Department of Budget and Management. The MMDA is now forced to rely on the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for research work on solutions to "traffic, flood, solid waste, and transport" issues.

Chairman Francis Tolentino requested Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo to develop cost-efficient speed radar guns, solar traffic lights, solar pump gauges, wind generators to power street lights, bio-radiation to treat wastes on waterways, high technology asphalt, rescue sensors for collapsed buildings and even mobile Doppler radars for weather forecasting.

DoST spokesperson Raymund Liboro said at the MMDA’s weekly radio program that Secretary Mario Montejo welcomed Tolentino’s “wish list.”

“MMDA will identify the problems, while DoST will work on the solutions and come up with the prototypes,” Liboro told the Manila Standard.

Metro Manila is the political, cultural, and financial capital of the Philippines. As such, it is supposed to be the showcase of all three aspects that make up the character of the Philippines.