MANILA — Chris Ibasan travels only about five miles to work each day in one of Manila’s business districts, but it is often a grueling two-hour commute that gets him into the office late.

“My manager understands,” said Mr. Ibasan, a 24-year-old shipping company employee. “Everyone is late; even the managers are late for work.”

From Mr. Ibasan’s perspective, the problem is simple.

“There are too many people going to work, too many vehicles and not enough roads,” he said. “And taking the train is like lining up to see a movie star. You wait for hours.”

But from an economist’s perspective, the problem is even larger. The 2.2 million vehicles a day that grind away on Manila’s crumbling road system cost the country 876 billion pesos a year, or more than $20 billion, in lost productivity and wasted energy, according to a recent study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. That is a serious drain on an economy of about $250 billion.