If I were to ask you about what you experienced in the last yuletide break in Baguio and La Trinidad, you would probably mention bumper-to-bumper traffic and overcrowded streets of unfamiliar faces. Those are what most people express as their quick answer to anyone who asks the question “kumusta ang Baguio?”
In the latest yuletide break that ended 2024, we saw how the tourist hubs in Baguio and La Trinidad, Benguet were overcrowded, affecting the movement of motor vehicles and leaving no space for roadside parking or for loading and unloading people.
In the first week of December, I heard a neighbor say, “Is it possible to close Baguio for homeowners and residents only even for just one day just for us to experience a city with lesser traffic jams and no overcrowding?” I told her to stay home to avoid traffic jams and the lowland crowd. She did that and was happy.
Baguio is an example of an overcrowded district. On weekends, especially during long breaks, motor vehicles occupy roadsides which cannot be managed easily as the roads cannot be widened anymore. And visitors from all over flock to tourist spots and restaurants that cannot contain more than their capacity.
What will this condition translate to? Of course, overcrowding increases the risk of infection of communicable diseases. Remember the COVID rule about “social distancing.” Those who suffer most are people caught in crowds, especially the children who could probably get more severe infections.
Since conditions are overcrowded, whether in a transient house or restaurant, there is the possibility that water quality is affected, water supply becomes insufficient, therefore resulting in waste disposal problems. If my recollection is correct, there was a time last year when people in a popular mall had stomach aches due to unsafe drinking water. Some were hospitalized.
At least, Baguio residents experience relief after the tourists have gone home or gone back to work in Manila or the cities and provinces where they came from. Yes, back to the overpopulated places they are used to.
Speaking of overcrowded Manila and the cities similarly situated, I heard their LGU officials deal with traffic congestion problems every morning by having these items for breakfast. That could be the main reason, they always include investments in the MRT or LRT in their budgets.
Indeed, investing in a metro rail transit and light rail transit that could traverse cities in Metro Manila and the provinces around it would lessen overcrowding on the roads. Certainly, if the rail networks could reach Batangas and Pangasinan, this could decongest Metro Manila.
Another solution that planners suggest is to create jobs outside the overcrowded centers. One way to do it is by opening job centers in the provinces and other cities around Metro Manila. If there are jobs there, people have a choice and would want to work in less crowded places.
To start with, LGUs would have to develop infrastructure in proposed work areas. That means the government should make special deals with businessmen in order to convince them to put up their establishments in places outside of Metro Manila.
Economic planners should instill in the minds of businessmen the negative effects of overcrowding such as resource depletion, increased social expenditure, rising unemployment, and poverty. I am beginning to imagine my economics teacher with a pretty face.
In addition, LGUs could manage overcrowding by planning where to open new roads, construct better housing infrastructure, and build new classrooms to ease overcrowding in schools where the number of student enrollees is larger than what the school can accommodate.
What gets the ire of people, including me, are the bad effects of overcrowding, such as noise, air and water pollution, crime, and of course, traffic. On another level, overcrowding could mean a higher level of unemployment, water supply is rationed, and environmental destruction.
True, people flock to Metro Manila expecting to get employed. It is a magnet for employment. But according to a sad story I read about people who cannot find employment, they try to live with relatives and friends until they find work.
People who do not have relatives to live with find it easier to look for spaces to sleep on than return to their provinces. Any hidden corner is a toilet and bathroom. When they are short on finances, they open any form of “business,” selling anything to survive. They hide their true condition from their families in the provinces.
Learn from the bad Manila situation. The answer to traffic jams and a true solution to overcrowded urban hubs, including Baguio and La Trinidad, is to disperse the centers by opening job opportunities outside.
Obviously, new roads and infrastructure have to be developed. Of course, development and new housing subdivisions should not be built in forests and on watersheds like what the Benguet State University is doing at Ampasit, Wangal in La Trinidad. But that is another topic for the future.
I wish you good health, happiness, peace, and more blessings for 2025!
