MMDA to close busway ramp for ‘improvements’

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will shut down an overly steep wheelchair ramp at the EDSA Bus Carousel’s Philam station for “improvements” after it went viral, acting MMDA Chairman Romando Artes said yesterday.

Workers would apply cement to fix the incline of the ramp, according to a GMA News report.

Architect Armand Eustaquio from the United Architects of the Philippines found the slope of the ramp was at 14.15 degrees, higher than the 4.8-degree inclination required by law, according to an earlier GMA News report.

Markus Operiano, officer-in-charge of the Malabon city government’s disability affairs office and a PWD, said Batas Pambansa 344 – a 1983 law that ensures the mobility of PWDs – mandates that the ramp’s slope should have a “maximum gradient of 1:12” or “for every 12 inches, the slope or incline should only be an inch.”

The ramp, which is connected to an elevator, would become off-limits for as long as two months to commuters taking the EDSA Bus Carousel.

Artes said the ramp would be reopened “as soon as improvements are finished,” he said in a text message to The STAR.

He added that the contractor would also start installing a wheelchair lift at the Philam station at no cost to the government.

Meanwhile, National Council on Disability Affairs executive director Glenda Relova said that while the NCDA lauded the installation of the wheelchair ramp at the EDSA Bus Carousel, the MMDA should have ensured persons using the ramp would not have difficulty.

Speaking to ABS-CBN News, she said the MMDA should have reached out to NCDA and organizations of persons with disability before putting up the ramp.