An award-winning mayor has urged leaders of 17 cities in Metro Manila to come up with a unified traffic policy that will ease the perennial problem of traffic in the metropolis.

Former Valenzuela City mayor and now Congressman Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian said city mayors should learn to coordinate with each other about the different traffic-related ordinances being enforced in Metro Manila.

“Ang Metro Manila, walang boundary. It is a borderless metropolitan areas being managed by 17 LGUs with different ordinances. Kaya dapat magpulong yung mga LGU para pag-usapan ‘yung traffic,” Gatchalian explained.

“(They should) come up with a unified traffic solution because in our current situation, we can’t afford to only have one LGU to be doing the problem solving,” he added.

Gatchalian, a member of House Committee on Metro Manila Development, said conducting a talk among city leaders is necessary to address the current traffic woes that is expected to last until the completion of Skyway-3, and LRT and MRT expansions in 2016.

He issued his statement after forum on Metro Manila traffic and port congestion with Manila City Vice Mayor Isko Moreno and Cagayan de Oro Congressman Rufus Rodriguez.

In the forum, the lawmaker reiterated his stand on the immediate use of the Subic and Batangas City ports as part of a long-term solution to the problem of congestion at the Manila ports that has gone from bad to worse.

“Other ports should be fully utilized dahil iyong mga kargamento galing North at South Luzon ay pwedeng namang ilagak sa Subic and Batangas City ports,” he argued.

Earlier, Gatchalian filed a resolution urging the House Committee on Transportation to conduct an inquiry into the immediate use of the Subic and Batangas City in response to the alarming bottleneck in the Port of Manila.

Congestion in the Port of Manila also caused prices of goods such as imported meat, vegetables and fruits to spike as ships refuse to replenish the supply to Manila due to lack of space in the container port.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had noted a 27.2-percent fall in the value of imported capital goods last June to $1 billion from $1.4 billion in the same period last year as a result of the port congestion. (Tim Alcantara)