MANILA, Philippines — Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade has offered Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong a memorandum of agreement for a cable car system in the city, Baguio's Public Information Office said.
The city government and the DOTr first touched on the idea in 2016 until Tugade instructed Transportation Undersecretary Mark De Leon to fast-track the deal, according to a statement on the city website. "The mayor said Tugade also expressed willingness to help the city should it decide to pursue the monorail project," the statement said.
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A multibillion-peso monorail project was previously proposed by the Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera to connect Baguio City and La Trinidad town in Benguet. The project was presented to the Regional Development Council in 2017, according to a statement on the city government's website.
According to a study by study by Certeza Infosys Corp., Baguio City roads can only support 145,416 people, leaving 2.4 kilometers per 1,000 people. “This means Baguio’s 349-kilometer road system is good for 42% of the population or serves only 20% of the daytime population,” the report warns.
Officials of the Baguio City government met with the Metro Manila Development Authority in late July to begin the creation of a traffic management program to address the congestion problem in the area.
When Tugade first took his post, he said that the Philippines could learn from Bolivia, which used the cable car system to address its traffic woes.
“Traffic management is no easy feat. There is a science behind it,” Magalong said in an earlier statement.
According to the Baguio City government, another possible target site for the project being considered is the Pasig River in Metro Manila, which has been dubbed in a study by the Asian Development Bank as the “most congested” city in developing Asia.
The Department of Transportation has long been looking into the possibility of a mass cable car system to alleviate the capital's traffic woes, most recently a line connecting Marikina and Ortigas, according to a report by CNN Philippines on September 30.
The French government in 2018 agreed to fund a feasibility study for the project proposal in Metro Manila, affording the Philippines a grant amounting to €450,000 to jumpstart the study.