DOTr seeks revision of ROW Law

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has proposed a further revision of the country’s Right-of-Way (ROW) Law, particularly to lower the limit of the government in accessing land at 25 meters below ground of privately owned properties from the current 50 meters.

This was revealed by Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, citing as an example that in Japan, the Japanese government can access government land as low as 10 meters below private property, thus allowing for the development of an extensive underground subway system that has provided increased mobility for the public and helped in the development of urban areas and increased economic activities.

Bautista reiterated that the ROW problem continues to delay the two vital railway projects of the DOTr, particularly the P870-billion, 147-kilometer North-South Commuter Railway Project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank, as well as the Metro Manila Subway Project which, likewise, has secured funding from the Japanese government.

The 33-kilometer Metro Manila Subway Project is already underway. It will start in Valenzuela near the boundary of Quezon City, with a total of 17 stations from Valenzuela up to Bicutan, with another square line planned to connect to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Secretary Bautista hopes that work on the initial station from Malolos to Valenzuela will hopefully be completed by 2027 before the term of the current Marcos administration ends. In a previous briefing, the DOTr secretary said that underground ROW problems still have to be resolved, particularly along EDSA and the private subdivision property of Corinthian Village, Metrowalk and the property of Unilab.

In an update, Bautista said, that while some property owners have given their consent on ROW access, other landowners are insisting on the 50 meters mandated by the existing law.

The Metro Manila Subway Project is eyed for completion by 2029 at a cost of P480 billion, and will reduce travel time from Valenzuela to Bicutan from two hours to 45 minutes. It would have a capacity to carry up to 500,000 passengers a day.

The subway project is at 30 meters below ground, which would thus necessitate a revision of the current 50-meter depth to hurdle the resistance from some property owners, such as Metrowalk and Unilab. Tenants of the two commercial properties are also trying to seek assurance from the DOTr that they would be allocated commercial space in the planned subway stations.

Another option available to the government is expropriation, “but that would be more time consuming and costly,” Bautista said.

At least two tunnel boring machines or TBMs are already in the country, but a total of 25 TBMs are supposed to be used for the entire project.

As for the ground-level NSCR Project, the ROW problem involves the acquisition of land and property for the path of the 147-kilometer railway project that would start from Calamba in Laguna to Clark in Pampanga. The project would provide the much needed connectivity between the Clark International Airport in Pampanga and Mega Manila.

The NSCR is envisioned to accommodate between 800,000 and one million commuters at full capacity per day, reducing travel time from Clark to Calamba from four hours to just two hours. There is also a plan for one express train line from Clark to Makati, which would reduce the railway commute to just 45 minutes.

Bautista admits that the viability of the Clark International Airport would be greatly enhanced with the railway project. At present, connectivity to Mega Manila is only through the North Luzon Expressway which is still subject to traffic and congestion at certain times of the day and during holidays.

Additionally, aside from the resistance of some landowners to sell their property, or who are holding out for a higher compensation, the DOTr is now further hampered by the recent reduction of the DOTr ROW acquisition budget from P20 billion to just P2 billion.

The DOTr chief had previously said that the major ROW problem for the NSCR Project is the relocation of anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 informal settler families in Pampanga and Bulacan, and another 15,000 in the Laguna and Cavite areas.

These two major railways projects, Bautista has repeatedly said, would really help reduce travel time and traffic congestion in Mega Manila. He had cited a JICA study in 2012 that the economic cost of traffic in Metro Manila is P2.5 billion a day. A 2017 study revised upward the economic cost of traffic to P3.5 billion, while the latest study released in 2021 computed the economic cost at P4.9 billion to as high as P5 billion a day in terms of loss of economic productivity.

With completion still likely to be delayed, perhaps new studies will show an even higher economic cost.

The DOTr budget was among those affected by the controversial Joint Senate and House of Representatives Bicameral Committee realignment of the 2025 budget. Aside from the reduction in the department’s ROW acquisition budget, counterpart funding for the DOTr’s other foreign funded projects were also cut, which would now require the Transportation department to borrow additional funds that would put the department in a deficit.

EDSA Busway project

As for the continued delay in drawing up the parameters for the EDSA Busway project that the Saavedra-led Megawide Corp. has initially proposed, Secretary Bautista explained that the DOTr is still carefully studying how the busway project could provide connectivity for other transport hubs.

Bautista explained that the DOTr is studying how to align and integrate other transport hubs in the city to the EDSA Busway system, thus providing a broader solution to Mega Manila’s traffic problem and not just that of EDSA thoroughfare.

Megawide’s original unsolicited proposal for the EDSA Busway Project involves connecting it to the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX), which was also built by Megawide, and to another unsolicited project the company has secured from the Province of Cavite, the P87-billion Cavite Bus Rapid Transit Project that it targets to start by September this year.

The EDSA Busway Project, however, will be up for bidding to other interested parties, the DOTr has ruled, even though Megawide had pitched the project.