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In a letter to Malacañang, the TRB said it is seeking the President’s instruction on what to do with San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposal to build a tollway over the Pasig River.
www.dpwh.gov.ph / dpwh / PPP / projs / parex
MANILA, Philippines — The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) urged President Marcos to issue a clear policy on the Pasig River Expressway (PAREX), as the project is stuck in the approval stage with more troubles on the horizon.
In a letter to Malacañang, the TRB said it is seeking the President’s instruction on what to do with San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposal to build a tollway over the Pasig River.
The P95.4-billion project is facing multiple conflicts from environmental, heritage and legal standpoints, according to TRB executive director Alvin Carullo.
He said the TRB has found the need for SMC to realign the upper leg of PAREX to prevent any conflict with the Intramuros Administration (IA). In 2024, the government, led by IA, placed Intramuros on the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage Center.
This means Intramuros is being geared up for future nomination to the World Heritage List. If the Walled City lands on that list, the government is mandated to observe a buffer zone around it, denying commercial developments in the area.
“The Intramuros Administration has this plan to have the entire Intramuros declared [as a World Heritage Site], so that will affect the alignment. PAREX may have to be realigned. I don’t know what would be left of the project,” Carullo said.
Moreover, part of PAREX’s alignment will collide with the P18-billion Pasig River Esplanade, a project endorsed by the First Family, intended to rehabilitate the river.
Before these issues, heritage and mobility groups have asked the government to scrap PAREX for its potential damage on the communities beside Pasig River.
Carullo said these are the reasons that to this day, PAREX has yet to be issued an environmental compliance certificate by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In turn, SMC is finding it difficult to submit a final engineering design for the project.
PAREX will run for 19.37 kilometers between the Southeast Metro Manila Expressway – which SMC is also constructing – and the Radial Road 10 in Manila City. It hopes to provide motorists with an elevated road connecting eastern and western metro.
In spite of the challenges in getting approval for PAREX, SMC has its hands full this year, as it will begin construction for the P148.3-billion Northern Access Link Expressway (NALEX) and the P152.39-billion Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEX).
NALEX will link Metro Manila to the New Manila International Airport, another SMC project, while SALEX will put up a freeway on the shorelines of Metro Manila.
