Is the Philippines Finally Seeing An End To Messy Traffic?
The Philippines has been the basket case of infrastructure development among the ASEAN countries, primarily because of corruption and lack of financial resources. But a monumental era of infrastructure progress is dawning on this great nation of fun-loving people. Not many Filipinos are aware of the 7 major game-changing infrastructure projects now in the pipeline: some nearing completion, some ongoing construction and some in the mobilization phase. These will trigger the dawn of the new Filipino age in which we will see amazing infrastructure revolution similar to Dubai and Shanghai, but with less grandeur and in selected strategic areas in the country.
The first I would like to talk about is the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project, a 150 km or so suburban railway network connecting the regional center of Clark in Central Luzon with Metro Manila and Calamba, Laguna. The construction of the NSCR will take place between 2024 to 2028, and when completed will be an integrated, dedicated suburban passenger railway system comprising four sections: (i) Tutuban-Solis-Malolos, (ii) Malolos-Clark-Clark International Airport, and (iii) Solis-Blumentritt-Calamba and (iv) the Clark-New Clark City extension.
One of the key problems in the Philippine’s development programs is the lack of integration and continuity due to the insatiable politicians looking after their own interests and that of their respective districts and forgetting the overall impact for the whole country. Projects are stopped or stunted when a new president is elected. A grandiose and well-thought-of infrastructure masterplan was designed during the time of President Fidel V. Ramos, during which this writer was one of the consultants. It was halted by the next Actor-President Joseph Estrada. Then, it was revived with few revisions during the time of President Gloria Arroya, during which this writer again was a consultant. Then, it was stopped by President Noynoy Aquino for alleged massive corruption linked to the infrastructure projects. Then, a rural-grown, bad-mouthed, dirty-harry, unorthodoxed but very popular president, Rodrigo Duterte, full of political will put in place a “Build, Build, Build” program and expedited the implementation of all these projects. It’s a good thing that the present president Bongbong Marcos continued these projects, with additions of agricultural-related infrastructure. Looks like all these will be ushered to completion because the present vice president, daughter of President Duterte, will be the next president, whether we like it or not.
Three major economic growth areas emerged in the last 20 to 30 years in Luzon: (i) Central Luzon, with the growing economies of Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac and, at the heart of it, Clark in Pampanga, having an airport and basic global infrastructure left by America’s Clark Airforce Base; (ii) Metro Manila, the “imperial capital” that attracted businesses and workers, and overpopulating a not-so-big metropolis and (iii) Southern Luzon, comprising the massively escalating economies of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas provinces, the home of Japanese, American and Korean factories and production facilities. The heart of this region is a city, where our national hero Jose Rizal was born, Calamba City, one of the country’s 10 Richest Cities.
The challenge is these 3 growth areas are not connected by proper transportation infrastructure. No wonder as we are beset by almost unsolvable traffic woes, particularly in Metro Manila where the major airports and seaports are located. Hence the construction of the North-South Commuter Railway Project to complement the ongoing Metro Manila Subway Project is a strategic solution. It will definitely ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila, encourage residential relocations in the suburbs of these growth areas and support the growing industries with less traffic-stressed workforce. The 4.5 hours travel time between Clark-Manila-Calamba will be reduced to 1.5 to 2 hours—a great relief to the suffering Filipino commuters.
NSCR is a close to 1 Trillion-peso project funded jointly by the Asian Development Bank, JICA, Korean Banks and a host of other multinational private investors. It is a classic Private Public Partnership Formula for Infrastructure Development.
Watch for the second project I will feature in my article next week.
