Wishes are only good if they come true

IN a couple of posts on Facebook over the weekend, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took on Metro Manila’s punishing traffic congestion with a wish list of ideas. All of the recommendations made by the President are sensible and encouraging, provided they are treated as such by the rest of the government responsible for implementing them.

In a video message on Sunday, Marcos announced, “To address traffic congestion in Metro Manila, we will expand and extend routes for the EDSA bus carousel, refurbishing the Pasig River stations and constructing bridges across the Pasig River.” He added, “We will prioritize active transportation facilities, including safe walkways and secured bike lanes, to promote healthier and more sustainable modes of travel.”

Along with these, Marcos also disclosed in a video posted on Saturday that he had directed the government to fast-track the construction of transportation infrastructure projects by extending construction hours and implementing round-the-clock emergency repairs.

While the President’s suggestions are welcome, they admittedly do not represent anything new, with the exception of the greater importance placed on active transportation. Rather, they are an acknowledgment, though the President diplomatically avoided explicitly saying so, of the over-promising and under-delivery of key transportation infrastructure in Metro Manila under the Duterte administration.

The Pasig River bridges are perhaps the most glaring example. As part of the Duterte administration’s much-publicized “Build, Build, Build” initiative, first announced in late 2016, a total of 12 bridges across the Pasig River were promised, most to be provided via grant or low-interest loan financing by the Chinese government, with whom ex-president Duterte was at the time developing quite cordial relations.

The outcome, however, was quite unimpressive. Only three of the 12 bridges were built, and one of those was merely a replacement for the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge linking Makati and Mandaluyong. That bridge and the new BGC-Pasig Bridge farther upstream also distinguished themselves by being obsolete immediately upon opening, not designed for the existing volume of traffic, to say nothing of reasonably predictable increased future traffic. The third bridge, the new Intramuros-Binondo Bridge, does not suffer from traffic congestion, but that can be attributed largely to its having been shoehorned into a location where it was neither needed nor useful.

The other infrastructure projects mentioned by President Marcos also suffered from a lack of intent and attention under the previous administration. The Pasig River ferry was all but ignored and left as a grossly underutilized sustainable transport option, which is all the more disappointing because it is evidently quite popular, even in its careworn and limited state, with its regular patrons. The EDSA Carousel, which was a remarkable development at the height of the pandemic and got off to a promising start, was similarly left in a half-finished state.