The real state of our roads

State of the Nationa Address I found President Aquino’s two-hour State of the Nation Address as “defensive.”

I agree with the observation made by leaders of the American and the European Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines that the President’s “swan song” harped on his administration’s alleged accomplishments but was low on promises on what the Filipino people can expect from him the next year.

If you look at President Barack Obama’s state of the Union Address delivered last January, he did not go into details on what has been. He would rather talk about what lies ahead – the challenges, the proposals that he will be sending Congress. Obama gave the American people what they wanted to hear – hope for the future. After all, what is the use of talking about numbers if the people do not believe them, much less feel that it has impacted their lives positively?

President Aquino could just have asked his Cabinet members to report their detailed accomplishments to the reporters of their respective agency’s press corps. The President could have spoken in broad strokes about what he has accomplished in the five years that he has been in office, and then devoted more time to talking about what needs to be done, why these need to be done, and the plan to accomplish these.

Take the case for instance of his administration’s flagship program – the public-private partnership (PPP) program.

He sounded more like an apologist for his Cabinet members primarily involved in the PPP program like Public Works Secretary Babes Singson and Transportation and Communications chief Jun Abaya when he justified the delays in putting the PPP infrastructure projects on the ground and said it is better for the projects to take long and spend time making sure that everything goes well.

“Ang sa akin nga po. Di na baling hindi ako ang mag groundbreaking or ribbon cutting. Ang mahalaga: Gawing pulido at naaayos sa batas ang mga proyekto, para oras na maaprubahan ito, dire-diretso ang pagpapatupad; maski sino ang sumuri, papasa ang kalidad ng ating ipinatatayo,” the President said in his SONA.

Is this what Singson and Abaya have been telling the President? That the delays are due to their being careful about the project’s conformity with technical and legal requirements?

According to President Aquino, there are 50 PPP projects under his administration, of which 10 have been awarded, 13 in the bidding stage, and 27 lined up.

The sad truth is, there is only one completed PPP road project since 2010, and that is the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway or MCX built by the Ayala Group (used to be known as the Daang Hari-SLEX Link Road), a four-kilometer extension of Daang Hari Road.

 According to news reports, the MCX was delayed by a year due to right-of-way issues and unexpected changes in the design of the project.

The MCX project was not the only one plagued by delays not of the private partner’s doing. 

The P15.8-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (NAIAX) of San Miguel Corp.’s Vertex Tollways Development Inc. (VTDI) that will connect the four NAIA terminals, is already a year behind schedule and according to SMC Tollway Projects head Alec Cruz, the delay is due to the DPWH’s failure to deliver the full right-of-way for the project.

 Cruz pointed out that government has yet to deliver the right of way for a number of key areas, including Villamor Airbase, NAIA Road, Tambo, and locations along the Quirino to Roxas Blvd. stretch.

 The SMC-led group was targeting its completion this October in time for the November APEC summit. However, it is only 40 percent finished.

 Another PPP project facing serious delay is the P17.52-billion new terminal of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) being built by the consortium of GMR Infrastructure Ltd. (GMR) and Megawide Construction Corp. which has been delayed for six months. The delay was reportedly due to government’s failure to immediately provide the Philippine Air Force (PAF) an alternate site for its MCIA operations.

And for those who continue to suffer EDSA and C-5’s horrendous traffic situation and who are looking for a viable alternative, the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road project of the Metro Pacific Group and the Metro Manila Skyway 3 project of SMC-Citra are the solutions in the horizon.

Unfortunately, these projects are so near yet so far. They have been delayed because of the need to redesign them. Imagine the waste of precious time and money. All of a sudden, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board approved the North-South Railway Project (NSRP), which will also use the same railroad tracks of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) whose right-of-way will also be used by the Metro Pacific and SMC.

 News reports reveal that SMC-Citra has started building Skyway 3 but has moved back its target completion to 2017. Metro Pacific’s Connector Road project on the other hand has yet to take off because of government’s fault.

Metro Pacific was earlier advised by government to enter into a joint venture with the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) which holds the franchise to both NLEX and SLEX. Manila North Tollways Corp. submitted its unsolicited proposal in 2010, and signed a joint venture contract with PNCC on Jan. 21, 2014.

And then lo and behold. Here is the Department of Justice saying that the joint venture is not in accordance with law and that the project will have to be subject to a Swiss challenge.

But wasn’t it government’s idea in the first place to create a joint venture?

And so Swiss challenge it is. It was originally scheduled for the third quarter but it appears that it will be moved back again because of the various government approvals needed, including confirmation by the NEDA Board, before MNTC’s unsolicited proposal can be subject to the challenge.

Even the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) has yet to be turned over to Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. because the Supplemental Toll Operation Agreement (STOA), although already approved by the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), is still awaiting final action by the Office of the President (OP).

And then we have MNTC’s NLEX Harbor Link project and another one extending NLEX from Mindanao Avenue to Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City which are also plagued by right-of-way problems. According to Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president Mon Fernandez government should deliver full ROW acquisition within the year so MNTC can finish the construction of Segments 9 and 10 of the NLEX Harbor Link by December 2016. 

MNTC’s P10.5 billion, 7.85-kilometer road extension from Mindanao Ave. to Commonwealth Ave. is also being delayed by ROW problems. 

As these ROW problems are not enough, operators and concessionaires of NLEX, SLEX, Manila Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex) and Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) are also plagued by government’s failure or refusal to act on their petitions for toll increases. 

 A lot needs to be done and what the President should have done in his SONA is tell his subordinates what they need to do to accomplish more in the remaining year of the Aquino administration.

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