Kabihasnan Road illegal?

An official of the Public Estates Authority (PEA) claimed that the Parañaque City government under former Mayor Pablo Olivarez violated Republic Act (RA) 2000 or the Limited Access Highway Law when it opened Kabihasnan Road as an alternative route to motorists.

"The Coastal Road is governed by RA 2000 which states that both sides should be fenced, that there should be no ingress and egress primarily for safety reasons," Manuel Francisco Jr., project manager of the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (MCTE) project told The STAR. The MCTE is under the PEA Tollway Corp., a subsidiary of the PEA.

But Francisco said PEA was left with no choice but to open Kabihasnan Road because of the impending closure of Quirino Avenue for repairs and the complete re-building of the La Huerte-Don Galo Bridge.

Quirino Avenue is a major thoroughfare used by motorists from Parañaque and Las Piñas going to Manila. This leaves Kabihasnan, a two-lane road, as the only route to Manila by way of the Coastal Road.

Francisco said last week there would be problems concerning "operational problems" with the opening of Kabihasnan Road. Among these are the lack of an acceleration road from the entry into Coastal Road and the removal of the illegal jeepney terminal at the corner of the highway and Kabihasnan.

There is also the issue of illegal settlers on PEA land where a service road could be built, Francisco said.

He said PEA would open Kabihasnan only after these issues have been addressed and a traffic management plan drawn up by an inter-agency committee has been approved. He did not give a specific date.

He said Kabihasnan Road became a subject of a court case after a private resident, who claimed to own the land where the road was built, sued the city government under Olivarez.

Moreover, Olivarez had reportedly ordered the center island along Coastal Road to be opened to allow southbound vehicles to make a left turn to Kabihasnan reportedly without informing PEA and the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), which serves as the highway’s operator. The TRB eventually ordered the center island closed.