‘No slowdown in road buildup and railway blitz’

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s largest toll road builders have committed to push through with nearly P200 billion worth of new expressways even as the government prioritizes mass transport by expanding rail networks.

Expressway developers San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) are proceeding with the construction of new toll roads across Luzon, confident they will remain relevant even in the face of a rail renaissance.

SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang said his group plans to deliver four new expressways within the decade, namely, the P23.36-billion Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) Extension; P45.29-billion Skyway Stage 4; P13.1-billion South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) Toll Road 4; and P22.6-billion SLEX Toll Road 5.

The Skyway Stage 4, for one, will connect Parañaque City with Quezon City through the eastern section of Metro Manila. It will pass through Taguig City and Taytay, Antipolo and San Mateo in Rizal, providing an alternative route in traveling between the north and south.

The government, for its part, is building the Metro Rail Transit Line 4 (MRT-4) that will traverse areas covered by the alignment of Skyway Stage 4. The MRT-4 will span 12.7 kilometers, made up of 10 stations, running through two cities in Metro Manila (Quezon City and Pasig City) and two municipalities in Rizal (Cainta and Taytay).

Further, the fourth and fifth toll roads of SLEX will cross most of the cities and municipalities in Southern Tagalog where the government plans to situate the Philippine National Railways South Long Haul, known as PNR Bicol.

As proposed, SLEX Toll Road 5 will go as far as Matnog, Sorsogon, where the endpoint of PNR Bicol is also expected to be built.

In spite of this, Ang believes that toll roads can thrive side by side with rail projects, particularly as expressways provide additional means for people and products to move.

“The availability of more modes of transportation means people have more options and logistics costs will go down. In the end, this benefits all of us,” Ang told the STAR.

Last week SMC and MPTC signed a memorandum of agreement to design, build and operate the 87.96-kilometer Cavite-Batangas Expressway and Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway. The project will cost P72 billion and is scheduled to be opened to motorists by 2027.

MPTC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the project is geared toward improving connectivity and speeding up the growth of Southern Tagalog, especially as the region hosts farms, industries and townships.

Based on the plan, the expressways will go through Silang, Amadeo, Tagaytay, Indang, Mendez and Alfonso in Cavite before reaching Nasugbu and Bauan in Batangas.

The government is asking lawmakers to double the budget of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to P214.3 billion in 2024, from P106 billion this year.

If approved, the DOTr will allocate more than three fourths, or P163.7 billion, of its budget to the construction and expansion of rail lines across Luzon. In particular, the agency will spend P76.3 billion and P68.4 billion for the delivery of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) and the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), respectively.

The P873.62 billion NSCR, funded mainly by Japan, will connect New Clark City with Calamba, Laguna once it is finished and operational by 2028.

Meanwhile, the P488.48-billion MMSP will stretch across seven cities in Metro Manila to cut travel time between Quezon City and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to 35 minutes.

Nevertheless, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will remain as one of the top budgeted agencies in 2024 with a proposed appropriation of P822.2 billion, of which P148.1 billion will be used to construct 722.66 kilometers in new roads and expand 647.29 kilometers of existing ones.

Transport experts usually debate what governments should prioritize in terms of funding, pitting rails and roads against each other given that they both eat up finite public spaces.

Notably, SMC and the Metro Pacific Group operate not just expressways, but also railways, with SMC building the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 that stretches from Quezon City to Bulacan and the Metro Pacific Group owning the concession to the Light Rail Transit Line 1.