GMA opens Batangas tollway

Lipa City – President Arroyo graced yesterday’s “soft opening” of the P2.5-billion Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) tollway that stretches from the interchange here to Batangas City.

Mrs. Arroyo was accompanied by Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza, and STAR Tollway Corp. president Melvin Nazareno and chairman Mark Dumon. In her speech before local officials, students, heads of different offices of the DPWH and DOTC, and leaders of the maritime and transport sectors, the President congratulated those responsible for completing the project, which she said would benefit residents of Batangas and other Southern Tagalog provinces. 

She particularly cited Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto, former senator Ralph Recto, Rep. Mark Leandro Mendoza, Eileen Ermita-Buhain and Vicky Reyes, and businessman F.F Cruz, whose firm constructed Phase 2 of the STAR tollway. Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo reiterated her directive to the DOTC to allocate P1 billion from the Special Pollution Control Fund for environmentally sustainable transport projects such as the use of alternative fuels like compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas for public transport. 

The STAR tollway is the vital link from Metro Manila through the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), one of the fastest growing areas in the Luzon Urban Beltway supra region.