Middle of last week, I was received a text message saying that “It is in deep sorrow that we inform you that our chairman Mr. Eliyahu ‘Eli’ Levin passed away early morning of Sunday, July 16, 2017.”
A memorial reception to celebrate his life was held at the Peninsula Manila.
Eli Levin was our longtime friend and I knew he had been ailing for the past few years.
Why The Peninsula? For many years, Eli always had his breakfast at this hotel. Later on, when he had become ill, I would still see him having brunch with his friends, his caregiver close by.
Thus last Friday, my son Eric, his wife Sarina and I attended the reception and saw that Eli’s remains were in a jar. His friends and associates gave eulogies. The reception was well-attended.
I first met Eli during the Marcos administration, when he was helping put up the LRT 1, the first mass transit system in Metro Manila.
I met him again in the next administration, when he conceptualized the MRT that would connect North and South Edsa. As a friend, he asked my help to let the people know more about the MRT because there were some objections; people were saying that the traffic caused by the construction would worsen.
These objections, among others, prolonged the building of the MRT despite the collaboration of local investors and religious sectors.
Strangely, MRT3 soon became a joint venture of the Ayala Group of Companies with Bob Sobrepeña’s Fil-Estate.
Eli Levin was dauntless. In 2002, he told me about his plan to put up a rail system aimed at decongesting traffic along Edsa, which was then going from bad to worse.
Eli’s vision was to have a mass transit system from San Jose del Monte, Bulacan to Quezon City. He submitted this plan to then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who then forwarded it to the National Economic and Development Authority.
Eli invited French, German, British and Japanese investors for the MRT. Somehow, Neda sat on Eli’s plans.
When BS Aquino came to power, one of the Zamora brothers, Salvador “Buddy” Zamora, bought into Levin’s interests. Still, MRT 7 did not start building—not until the last years of the Aquino administration when a white knight, Ramon S. Ang, bought out all the investors of MRT 7.
Now, San Miguel is keeping the 2019 completion of the project that would cost $1.54 billion despite right-of-way issues.
SMC will operate MRT under a 35-year concession agreement. Apart from the railway line, SMC is also building a 22-kilometer, six-lane highway that will link San Jose del Monte, Bulacan to the Balagtas interchange of the North Luzon Expressway, operated by Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
SM is also building an inter-modal transportation when the MRT begins operating in 2019. The terminal will be capable of handling some 200 buses at any given time. The train line will have 14 stations.
Eli Levin, in my book, can be called the father of mass transportation. I really do not know how the government intends to honor him. I think it should.
Some people do not even know how good Eli was to his friends. My family and I once went on a pilgrimage to the Holy land, and he called our tour guide to tell him to take us Tel Aviv so we could join him. When our guide protested, he shouted: “Just bring back Emil Jurado and family!” Thus the itinerary was put on hold for a day just so we could see him.
He died in a country he had adopted as his own. My wife and I will really miss him.
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I submitted this column before the State of the Nation Address of President Duterte. The Palace had said the speech would be frank, realistic and hopeful. To me, honesty and hopefulness are enough.
I hope the President ended up talking about how he would address poverty and joblessness, aside from the menace of illegal drugs, criminality and corruption.
The one thing that is obvious is President Duterte’s commitment to restore the people’s faith in the government.