1 month ago
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Big business on Sunday, Feb. 9, urged the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to maintain and improve the dedicated lanes for buses and motorcycles on the main thoroughfare EDSA to decongest vehicular traffic.
"Any talk of possible dismantling of the EDSA Carousel Line at this stage would be ill-advised," said the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), which counts among its members tycoons and top executives from the country's biggest conglomerates and corporations, in a statement.
This was MAP's reaction to MMDA Chairman Romando S. Artes' pronouncement last week that the government supposedly plans to remove the EDSA Busway—the dedicated lane for buses and their designated stops—once the capacity of the parallel Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3) is upgraded.
For MAP, doing so "will be going against the National Transport Policy of 2017, where public transportation is given priority as a mobility solution, mandating the DOTr and the DPWH to implement and regulate it," referring to the departments of Transportation and of Public Works and Highways.
"To think that a private vehicle with high occupancy on the Busway can outload a bus in terms of occupancy is simply unrealistic. MRT-3's design capacity is just 350,000 passengers and adding a coach or 'bagon' to it will overload its superstructure and trackway. Besides, there is no space on the platform for the coach extension," MAP pointed out.
Over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista maintained that the EDSA Busway won't be dismantled.
MAP quoted Bautista as saying that the EDSA Busway "remains the most efficient public transit system in Metro Manila."
MAP president Alfredo S. Panlilio, along with the group's transportation and infrastructure committee chair Eduardo H. Yap, cited that the efficiency of the EDSA Busway has been "well-proven during the last three years of its existence, despite its incompleteness."
Given the contrasting statements from the DOTr and MMDA chiefs, MAP cautioned the government to "[speak] with one voice on this vital public transportation project."
MAP noted that the EDSA Carousel Line's privatization is already in its final preparation stage for public bidding, supported by funding from the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center and the Washington-based multilateral lender World Bank.
Bidding for its private operator is expected to take place in the second quarter of this year, MAP added.
As for the Mabuhay Lanes, or express routes, also along EDSA, MAP called on the MMDA to revitalize and fully utilize them especially for motorcycles, "because they travel 'point-to-point.'"
"The Mabuhay Lanes should be cleared of all traffic obstruction and illegal parking, rather than contemplating on the dismantling of the EDSA Carousel Line. Any additional lane on EDSA given for private vehicles will be useless as it will soon be filled up by traffic, per our experience. And other measures, such as congestion fee charges, have not even been explained to motorists and much less tested," MAP said, referring to the MMDA's proposal to collect toll from private vehicles passing through EDSA.
"The MMDA should focus on this as a priority measure to decongest traffic on EDSA," according to MAP.
Pre-pandemic, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimated Metro Manila traffic congestion cost the economy about P3.5 billion daily.
