Gov’t should remove its blinders

First, we have a transportation czar who in a nonchalant manner tells us that the Metro Manila traffic situation is “not fatal.” He later apologized, but that does not take away the fact that we already know what he really thinks about our problem.

Second, we have a President who seems to have ran out of ideas when he said that he is mulling a revival of the odd-even scheme to reduce the volume of traffic without even considering how motorists-turned-commuters will go around town given the sorry state of our public and mass transport system.

The real solution, which they should have adopted years back, is more roads that could provide alternatives to our two major Metro Manila highways – EDSA and C5.

They say it is too late in the game to build new roads. That’s true. But if they start now rather than later, then the solution will come much earlier.

We have here the likes of the Metro Pacific Group and the San Miguel Group, all more than willing to start their respective new road projects and improve existing ones that they own and/or operate. So what’s stopping them?

Metro Pacific’s Manila North Tollways Corp. or MNTC operates the North Luzon Expressway and is awaiting government’s turnover of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. It has bagged the contract to build the C-5 Link Expressway that will connect the Manila-Cavite Expressway or Cavitex with C5 as well as the Cavite-Laguna Expressway or Calax project; San Miguel Corp.’s Private Infra Development Corp. has the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway or TPLEX while SMC-Citra operates the South Luzon Expressway, Skyway, the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road or STAR Toll.

But the government seems doing everything in its power to prevent seamless travel along major thoroughfares from becoming a reality.

Take the case of SCTEX.

MNTC’s contract to manage and operate STEX was approved as early as 2009, but the succeeding administration wanted to renegotiate the contract. And then last November, President Aquino ordered the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) to stage a price challenge or competitive bidding. Finally, last February, BCDA and MNTC signed the business operating agreement turning over management, operations and maintenance of SCTEX to the toll operator for the next 29 years after MNTC won the price challenge.

Almost seven months after the signing, government has not turned over SCTEX despite the Metro Pacific group having deposited the required P3.5 billion in cash in an escrow account and having secured the consent of JICA which financed SCTEX’s construction, as part of the pre-takeover conditions.

They say the supplemental toll operation agreement (STOA) which has already been approved by TRB is still pending at the Office of the President.

Meanwhile, the government is again taking its sweet time in switching on the green light so that Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC) also of the Metro Pacific group can start work on the C5 Link Expressway project.

MPIC said earlier that under CIC’s concession, “the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is required to issue the Notice to Proceed for the construction of the project, as soon as an independent consulting firm issues a certification under the toll operation agreement on the availability of the right of way for the alignment already approved by DPWH, the approval of a final engineering design now undergoing final review, and construction schedules and costs.”

MPIC said that once completed, the project would “provide relief to traffic congestion in Paranaque City, particularly the residents of Merville, Moonwalk and Multinational villages, and will provide safe, fast and convenient expressway travel for its users in the Cavite, Las Piñas, Parañaque, Taguig, and Makati areas and nearby areas.”

CIC is still waiting TRB’s issuance of the Notice to Proceed and according to CIC president Luigi Bautista “all the projected preparations are in place and on schedule, and we are ready to commence construction as soon as the Notice to Proceed is issued by the TRB.”

In a related development, two projects that could have eased Metro Manila traffic had they been allowed to start construction early remain delayed. We are referring to the P25.6-billion Metro Manila Skyway 3 (Skyway 3) of the SMC-Citra consortium and the parallel NLEX-SLEX Connector Road of Metro Pacific.

The delay was partly due to the need to redesign both alignments after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board belatedly approved the North-South Railway Project (NSRP), which will use the same railroad tracks of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) that will be used by the two privately-initiated projects.

SMC-Citra has started building Skyway 3 but has moved back its target completion to 2017. On the other hand, MPIC’s NLEX-Connector Road has yet to take off the ground after government said the Swiss Challenge that will be conducted for the project still needs approval by the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), and then confirmation by the NEDA Board. It is only after confirmation that the invitation to bid can be published.

Another important project, the P15.8-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (NAIAX), which SMC’s Vertex Tollways Development Inc. (VTDI) is building as a PPP project to connect the four NAIA terminals to the Skyway System and Cavitex, is already a year behind schedule and will not be completed in time for November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) summit in Manila.

SMC Tollway Projects head Alec Cruz said the delay is due to DPWH’s failure to deliver the full right-of-way for the project in April last year. Government has yet to deliver the ROW for a number of key areas, including Villamor Airbase, NAIA Road, Tambo, and locations along the Quirino to Roxas Boulevard stretch, Cruz added.

Also, MPCALA Holdings Inc.’s timetable for its P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) is being threatened likewise by government’s non-delivery of the necessary ROW.

According to reports, the DPWH was supposed to issue the Notice to Proceed last July 31, but was unable to do so due to non-delivery of the ROW and the approved detailed engineering design.

Calax is a 44.6-kilometer, four-lane expressway connecting Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.

Meanwhile, ROW problems are also causing delays for MNTC’s NLEX Harbor Link project as well as another one that would extend NLEX from Mindanao Avenue to Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.

In a related development, the operators and concessionaires of NLEX, SLEX, Cavitex and STAR have filed their respective petitions for toll increases starting January this year. But instead of granting the long overdue rate adjustment, the DPWH and TRB is considering just extending their concessions or reimbursing their expenses for road improvements to improve their revenues.

But MNTC has said that they prefer a toll rate increase because they need the cash to finance repair and maintenance work. MPIC, for instance, is spending P1.5 billion in the next three years to rehabilitate SCTEX and is integrating SCTEX with NLEX at a cost of P650 million.

SIDC meanwhile proceeded with the STAR Phase 2 expansion at a cost of P2.3 billion reportedly based on an assurance from TRB that a toll hike will be granted. TRB reportedly asked SIDC to build additional lanes, apply a new layer of asphalt on the road, and put up a new interconnection plaza with the adjacent SLEX. SIDC was able to finish the project, but the toll hike never came.

The current traffic woes should therefore not come as a surprise to the present administration, considering that it has done absolutely nothing to provide a long-term, sustainable, and practical solution to the problem.

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