President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise of a five-minute travel time from Quezon City to Makati by December 2019 did not come to pass, but Malacañang said Sunday it could still be done in the remaining years of the administration.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo expressed optimism the President’s promise of a five-minute travel time from Cubao to Makati was still possible.
“His promise depends on certain factors that will give fruition to his promise,” Panelo said in a radio interview.
“If those were not met, if those conditions were not present, then the promise would not be fulfilled.
“And that doesn't mean that if that didn't happen this year, it won't happen until his term expires.”
Panelo did not elaborate on the “factors” he was referring to.
But “As long as there is life, there is hope,” he said.
The President first issued the promise in March during a campaign rally of the ruling PDP-Laban, and he repeated it last June in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s program, “Give Us This Day.”
“You just wait. God willing, in December it would be smooth sailing. You don't have to worry about traffic. Cubao and Makati is just about five minutes away, Duterte was quoted saying.
The traffic problem remains one of the Philippines’ top woes, especially after Duterte acknowledged his incapacity to solve it on EDSA, Metro Manila’s major thoroughfare, before his term ends in 2022.
Duterte has also said he is not interested in improving the situation in EDSA and will just let it “rot,” apparently fed up after lawmakers blocked his request for emergency powers due to fears of corruption and abuse of power.
Meanwhile, his spokesman Panelo was later challenged by critics to take public transportation after saying Filipinos should wake up early to arrive at their destinations on time.
