Transport budget for the commuter in 2027

Every morning, an exhausting battle for survival unfolds on the streets of the Philippines. In Metro Manila, Mark, a minimum-wage earner, waits up to two hours just to board a packed EDSA Carousel bus, constantly calculating whether his shrinking daily budget can cover a more expensive alternative mode of transportation just to make it to work on time and in one piece. Beside his bus stop, Sarah nervously navigates a fading, unprotected bike lane, fully aware that a single swerving vehicle could end her life. Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away in a rapidly growing provincial city, a commuter named Elena navigates worsening daily gridlock in a jeepney, wondering when the promises of PUV modernization will finally materialize. For Mark, Sarah and Elena, transportation is a punishing test of endurance. Yet, the immediate relief they desperately need seems to be slipping further away.

At the House of Representatives, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) began defending its proposed budget under the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) during congressional deliberations on Sept. 3, 2026. As lawmakers scrutinized the agency’s PHP 300.96 billion proposal, a massive PHP 163.11 billion increase from its 2026 budget, a stark policy direction emerged. The government is betting heavily on a high-speed future for the capital through the North-South Commuter Railway (PHP 123.84 billion) and the Metro Manila Subway Project (PHP 67.44 billion), but in doing so, it is actively choosing to abandon today’s commuters and the burgeoning transport needs of the provinces.

A closer look at the 2027 NEP reveals exactly where the DOTr’s priorities lie: long-term, large-scale railway infrastructure heavily concentrated in and around Metro Manila. This historic rail investment is a highly welcome development. Metro Manila desperately needs this structural backbone to finally solve its paralyzing congestion and bring its transportation system on par with those of neighboring Asian capitals. However, focusing almost entirely on these megaprojects exposes a glaring blind spot in the government’s strategy.

By pouring massive capital into the metropolis, the DOTr is effectively starving other developing areas of much-needed infrastructure. Developing provincial areas are low-hanging fruit; their transportation woes can be mitigated now while they are still relatively small and manageable. Unlike the astronomical scale of Metro Manila’s gridlock, provincial traffic can still be corrected efficiently. But by passing them over, the government is allowing these regions to replicate Manila’s mistakes, waiting until their traffic problems become irreparable before deciding to act.

Furthermore, everyday commuters and vulnerable road users in the metropolis suffered devastating budget adjustments because of shifted priorities. Active transport and safe pathways, the very lifeblood of our bike lanes and pedestrian walkways, saw their funding slashed by 97 percent, dropping from a proposed PHP 1.13 billion to just PHP 34 million. The Philippine Road Safety Action Plan was zeroed out. Crucial immediate relief measures, such as EDSA Busway service contracting and the transport sector fuel subsidy, were left completely unfunded in the NEP.

This stark policy trade-off becomes even more alarming when cross-referenced with macroeconomic data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In the second quarter of 2026, the Philippine economy slowed to 2.3 percent, dragged down by a 32.4-percent contraction in public construction. By heavily funding rail capital outlays, the administration is attempting to revive GDP growth and absorb some of the 2.59 million jobless Filipinos recorded in June 2026, when unemployment rose to 4.9 percent.

However, this macro-level gamble comes with severe micro-level casualties. Inflation in August 2026 stood at a still-painful 6.1 percent. Stripping away bus service contracts and fuel subsidies directly threatens the purchasing power of the working class, leaving them at the mercy of volatile transportation costs. More alarmingly, the PSA’s recent Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) revealed that 12.4 percent of households remain multidimensionally poor, largely because of a lack of access to essential services. By defunding active transport, refusing to subsidize mass transit and ignoring regional mobility, the government restricts the physical movement of its poorest citizens, cutting them off from the economic opportunities that could lift them out of poverty.

The proposed DOTr budget under the 2027 NEP exposes a brutal reality. Securing the capital’s macroeconomic future is coming at the immediate expense of today’s commuters and regional development. While the rail investments in Metro Manila are undeniably a welcome triumph for the future, this does not mean that current transportation issues should be set aside while they become irreparable. A progressive and humane transport budget must balance tomorrow’s ambition with today’s grassroots reality. We cannot ask the poorest Filipinos, whether waiting for a bus on EDSA or for a jeepney at a city terminal, to endure daily misery and unprotected streets for a train ride they might take only a decade from now.