Government upbeat on program to decongest EDSA

MANILA, Philippines — Despite the pandemic, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar underscored on Friday that the Duterte administration’s efforts to decongest EDSA have started to gain ground following the inauguration of the Skyway Stage 3 project last week.

Andanar said the government remains upbeat on the EDSA decongestion program, which aims to ease traffic along Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare to spur economic growth and opportunities for Filipinos.

Interviewed on Andanar’s radio program Cabinet Report, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar was happy to announce that they have already completed three major infrastructure projects that are part of the decongestion program.

These are the Laguna Lake highway from Bicutan to Taytay; the NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10, which allows trucks from the port to go to NLEX without passing through the streets of Metro Manila; and the 18.30-km. Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3, an elevated expressway that connects Buendia in Makati City to the North Luzon Expressway in Balintawak, Quezon City.

Andanar lauded the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for its non-stop operations to implement its infrastructure roadmap and further help boost the economy.

“While we are dealing with the pandemic, the infrastructure projects are expected to continue for the benefit of the Filipino people. Every road, bridge or building we build will provide jobs for our people and help our economy to recover,” Andanar said.

“We can now see the importance of these infrastructure projects in the decongestion of EDSA, as well as in preparing for natural disasters. That is why one of the main priorities of the national government is the Build Build Build program, and we can see its benefits in decongesting EDSA,” Andanar added.

For his part, Villar said the Duterte administration’s infrastructure projects under its Build Build Build program generated over 1.6 million construction-related jobs.

“The economy is about connectivity. If you cannot move products and goods, there will be no economic growth. That’s the problem. The economic development is slow because there are blockages. So that’s what we are doing now. We’re bypassing all these blockages so in effect, we can have a free-flowing economy, with a much bigger growth,” Villar said.

The capacity of EDSA is for 280,000 cars per day, yet there are more than 400,000 cars passing through it every day before the EDSA Decongestion Program.

Now, around 120,000 cars per day are expected to be rerouted, bringing EDSA back to its original capacity, the DPWH secretary said.