“¨“OUR state of mind is such, because traffic is a deplorable reality,” said Senator Grace Poe, replying to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade’s reported remark that the Filipinos’ “state of mind” worsens the country’s traffic problem.
“We should not be naive to the problem but we need to focus on solutions as well. As ordinary citizens, complying with traffic rules is a start,” Poe said in a statement.
As ordinary citizens, Poe noted that complying with traffic rules is a start.
“As a legislator, I will do what I can to pass measures that will help government implement projects asap [as soon as possible] to solve the problem,” she added.
She said the Department of Transportation should make sure that they implement a well studied traffic plan and solution and follow through with it.
The DOTr has submitted to the Senate committee on public services, chaired by Poe, a list of projects the government plans to implement under the emergency powers for traffic being sought for President Rodrigo Duterte.
Poe’s committee will continue on Sept. 22 the hearing on the grant of emergency powers to the President to address the traffic crisis.
Tugade was reported to have said that traffic has become a convenient excuse for tardiness, stressing that even when there was no traffic, people say there was and that a state of mind adds to the problem of traffic.
Reacting to Tugade’s statements, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito maintained that traffic in the country is already a “crisis,” pointing out it’s not going to get better until we have laid down the railways.
“That’s why we cannot delay (the granting of the emergency powers) to address the problem any longer, otherwise the streets of Manila will already choke,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said the government would have to spend P1.15 trillion for the land-sea-air traffic improvement measures.
“And that’s just the minimum as many proposed projects in the menu submitted by the Department of Transportation to the Senate are still without price tags,” he said.
Because it is impossible to fund them all in one go, Recto is urging the DOTr to segregate the projects into levels of priority – “from the super urgent to the slightly urgent.”
The senator noted the list submitted by Tugade includes projects which can be put “in the back burner,” like the construction of a training room in one DOTr-supervised office and the purchase of non-essential computers.
According to Recto, the DOTr’s list is clustered into four sectors: road, maritime, aviation and rail, with its budget of P1.07 trillion, hogging 93 percent of DOTr’s P1.15 trillion wish list.
With a tentative budget of P58.6 billion, road sector projects, by cost, is topbilled by the proposed P39.4 billion Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Line 2, a 48.6 kilometer loop around EDSA, Ayala Avenue, NAIA and the Ortigas and Bonifacio Global City business districts.
A second BRT line from the Manila City Hall to Quezon City Hall would need P4.8 billion. Two bus-related projects, an integrated terminal in Paranaque and Taguig, would cost P5.4 billion, Recto said.
DOTr is also asking P3.3 billion to jump start the setting up and operations of the proposed Single Traffic Authority, plus P1.9 billion to end the shortage and regularize the supply of vehicle license plates and driver’s license cards.
Maritime-related activities would cost P3.9 billion, with P2.9 billion for the revival of the Pasig River ferry system.
Recto said this would fund the purchase of 20 100-passenger boats, the repair of eight terminals and the dredging of the 15-kilometer ferry route.
As for the trillion-peso proposed outlay for the rail sector, Recto said this will be dispersed among three major categories: improvement and construction of light rail lines in Metro Manila, Cavite and Bulacan; the Philippine National Railways (PNR) South and North Lines; and construction of regional networks in Mindanao and Cebu.
LRT Line 1 will cost P24 billion plus P3 billion for the MRT-LRT Quezon City common station; Line 2, P21 billion; Line 3 which is the MRT, P8.4 billion; Line 4, P84 billion; and Line 5A, P15 billion.
Line 5 will incur the biggest cost: P219 billion for a 14-kilometer subway that will snake through the Makati and Taguig business districts to Manila and the Pasay reclamation complex.
Line 6 from Cavite to Dasmarinas will cost P68 billion while Line 7 from Quezon City to Bulacan will cost P95 billion.
Funding eyed for PNR is P107 billion for its North line to Malolos, Bulacan and P150 billion for its South line to Binan, Laguna. A 55-kilometer track extending the North line to Clark will cost an additional P99 billion.
Recto said the proposed Mindanao Rail will consist of a 20-kilometer line costing P79 billion in a yet to be named city while a 25-kilometer line in Cebu will cost P98 billion.
Of the aviation sector’s P18.2 billion share, P10.9 billion will be for NAIA, P2.4 billion of which is for a third runway and P7 billion for the relocation of informal settlers on its 96 hectares of property.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ (CAAP) P4.4 billion allocation is for the repair and night-flying capability upgrade of the Roxas, Dipolog, Ozamis, Tuguegarao, Cauayan, Pagadian, Catarman, Masbate, Calbayog, Dumaguete and Naga airports.
Also earmarked are P814.5 million worth of projects for Clark International Airport and P635.5 million to modernize the airport at Subic Bay.