Palace: Gov’t working to solve traffic woes

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration is doing its best to carry out infrastructure projects that would solve decades-old perennial flooding problems and the traffic problems in Metro Manila, a Palace official said Thursday.

The national government is getting technical support from Japan to make a master plan to solve traffic problems, Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said in a news briefing.

“There are just too many cars, and the population in the National Capital Region is so large,” he said in Filipino.

He said the country’s improving economy has resulted in an increase in car sales and the number of condominiums and housing projects within city centers.

Coloma said the Aquino administration “is doing everything that can be done” with the projects, which are included in the Philippine Development Plan from 2011 to 2016, with the 11 months left until the national elections.