WE are now in pain as the government pursues its massively ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program in a bid to jump-start an economic growth long delayed due to past administrations’ neglect and apathy.
The suffering would be caused mainly by traffic jams as a result of round-the-clock construction centering on road-widening, a bridge-building binge in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao totaling no less than 18 state-of-the-art spans, airport and seaport rehabs and even the erection of new gateways all over the archipelago, expressway connector/expansion, putting up a first subway in Metro Manila and an interconnecting railway system nationwide.
No less than P8.4 trillion has been earmarked for the project that includes the building of new cities over a six-year period ending 2022, the year President Duterte’s reign ends.
The new Clark City will have an expanded international airport plus the Manila-Clark railway and an expressway to shorten travel time from Metro Manila to the Clark hub, all the way to Subic.
Do you know that 22 interconnected expressways are in the program, eight of which already exist? And when completed, travel time from the North’s Ilocandia to Bicolandia in the South will be drastically reduced from 20 hours to just eighth hours?
The North Luzon Expressway (Nlex)-Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx)-Tarlac Pangasinan–La Union Expressway (TPLEx) will be from Manila up to Rosario, La Union—finished by December, making Baguio City just a virtual spitting two and a half hour distance away from Balintawak from the usual six to seven hours.
As usual, by just mentioning that triple treat expressway, the name of RSA (Ramon S. Ang) comes immediately to mind because he engineered the construction of the iconic TPLEx (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway) as an extension of MVP’s Nlex-SCTEx.
But expressway expansion going South is almost purely RSA, who is also speeding up the completion of the Nlex-SLEx connector that will stupendously reduce travel time from the South to the North and vice versa by hours, besides easing up much of the traffic clogs at Edsa, most especially. And is RSA close to laying the groundwork for the Santo Tomas, Batangas-to-Lucena Expressway?
Infrastructure has always been the key to every nation’s progress but, in a disappointing display of corruption-spiced manner of governance by previous dispensations leading to growth stagnation, we’ve lagged behind by leaps and bound.
For so long, we’ve been dubbed the sleeping dragon of Asia. We have not awoken because, instead of progressing, we keep on retrogressing—consistently. Why? Because our past leaders were either indifferent to the cry of the times or corrupt to the core themselves—like most, if not practically, all of their lieutenants on the ground.
Some even blame our car companies as the chief cause of traffic jams not only in the metropolis but also in urban centers in the Visayas (Cebu) and Mindanao (Davao).
How many times have I said here that vehicle manufacturing has always been a constant and a great government ally in growth and progress?
America was a backward motoring country until Henry Ford, the great innovator, called on government to partner with him in building the interstate freeway. This was past the turn of the century. When finally completed, the freeway connected all states of America, paving the way for a car boom that would spread all over the world.
Our country should have achieved its peak motorization a long time ago the way Thailand and Indonesia did. Alas, our past leaders had always preoccupied themselves more with lining up their pockets than training their sights on infrastructure to build more roads, bridges, airports, railways, seaports and other links/spans, which are the necessary tools to attain lasting progress and sustainable development for generations to come.
Fortunately, for our long-suffering republic, the present dispensation seems bent on righting the wrongs of past administrations. There will surely be inconveniences along the way as road diggings, bridge building and earth-moving will dot the traffic landscape for quite a while.
But then, patience my dear. As the saying goes, no pain no gain.
PEE STOP Undisputed car leader Toyota will launch today Rush, its latest addition to its array of top-selling models. Even before it could be officially unveiled, Toyota has attracted its usual loyal fan base to make advance orders of the Rush. If truth be told, there is really a rush among car buffs to own a Rush the minute it hits the showroom. Cheers!…Congratulations to the early pacesetters of the fifth Vios Cup at Clark last weekend, led by Keith Bryan Haw (Obengers), Allan Uy (Manila Proof Racing), Estefano Rivera (Obengers), Gerald Loy (Team Biskeg) and Paulo Agregado (Obengers) in the Super Sporting Class. Jette Calderon of Toyota Cebu was sixth, Raymond Ronquillo of Obengers seventh, Sean Velasco of Obengers eighth, Ramon Tanjuatco of Toyota Cebu ninth, Miko Maristela of AP Corse/Toyota Makati 10th, Mark Sy of Toyota QA 11th, Tonton Ramos of JBT Racing/Toyota San Fernando 12th, and Bryan Co of Team Biskeg 13th.