The Cost of Active Mobility and Who Pays the Price

Public Transport Dictates Our Access to Public Services, Education, or Livelihoods. How Can We Reimagine It to Be Safer and Better?

- Alyssa Belda, Ronel Bernabe, and Patty Ferriol

If you're a commuter in Metro Manila, you probably have a list of essentials that you bring with you before leaving the house. Beep card? Check. Umbrella? Check. Sunblock? Check. Portable fan? Ibabudget pa for the next double-digit sale.

Aside from the perpetually increasing cost of transport fares, these are things that cost you when our transport infrastructure is anti-pedestrian. Instead of shelter from the rain, we are forced to wade through floods just to get home. Instead of trees and public parks, we brave the scorching heat without cover on our barely-there sidewalks.

During the pandemic, public transport was suspended, and this caused a boom for cycling as Filipinos were left with no other choice. The pandemic ushered in progress for human-powered mobility, or active mobility, as a main mode of transport.

Five years later, systemic gaps still pass the burden on ordinary Filipinos who already pay exorbitant taxes, enduring exhausting or even life-threatening commutes because we are left with no choice but to count on our diskarte. 2025 Was Doomed for Active Mobility Before It Even Started.

From the initial PHP 2.4 billion proposed budget allotted for active transportation in the 2025 National Expenditure Program, the actual budget was slashed to PHP 60 million. For reference, the 2024 budget was set at PHP 1 billion, a whopping 94% slash, which is supposed to fund various active transport projects in the entire Philippines.