Will traffic problem affect Mar's chances in 2016?

MANILA, Philippines - A Cabinet official said Thursday that the worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila will not affect the winning prospects of Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II in the 2016 election.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad disagreed that the traffic problem will be a huge factor if Roxas ends up losing next year's presidential race.

He said traffic mess is not unique to Metro Manila.

"You go to every growing metropolis in any capital of the world and they are confronted with - especially in emerging markets - with this problems," Abad said in an ambush interview with reporters in Cebu.

Abad also disagreed that voters will heap all the blame on Roxas, who was appointed by President Aquino in 2010 as transportation secretary.

"I don't think that the people will do that. All it needs is for the administration to explain where this problem is coming from and what the government is doing to try to make it easier for the public to deal with this phenomenon," said Abad, a former president of the Liberal Party.

Abad also belittled Vice President Jejomar Binay's claim that Metro Manila's traffic condition is now a "crisis situation."

He said he expects the opposition to again raise the traffic dilemma as an election issue, but he is confident that the administration will be able to present explanations and solutions.

"The government has put this really a high priority in concerns that it is addressing right now and it is looking at various ways by which we can mitigate the problem," Abad said.

"We will not be able to solve this in the short term because the response to this really needs a long term solution," he added.

Last week, Aquino met with concerned government officials to discuss the traffic problem.

Aquino approved the deployment of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group to serve as the lead traffic law enforcement agency on EDSA.

He ordered that "priority action" will be taken to clear six major intersections that are considered traffic congestion "choke points" along the major thoroughfare. - Louis Bacani