Many are asking on when will the railroad be completed inorder to connect Manila to Clark Freeport. Most likely no one from the Department of Transportation can provide an answer. Acciona, the Spanish construction company doing the job maybe can provide the answer. Their lips are sealed. Let’s just make the calculations. There are still several portions which are even untouched and methinks it may take maybe three more years if it can be ready for public use. That’s if we are lucky enough.
. Let me recall events which happened some years ago. There was then differing views with regards to the performance of then Arthur Tugade as secretary of Department Transportation if it was thumbs up or thumbs down? From day one of the Duterte administration he headed the department which is in charge in the construction of the railroad. The project is more or less one hundred kilometers long. It was then called the North South Commuter Railway Project.
Tugade’s press statements then said the work continued on accelerated pace even amid the pandemic. When the six years of Duterte’s administration was concluded not much was accomplished. Now after six years of Duterte and three years of Bongbong Marcos, where are we now? Unfinished.
Let’s make a comparison, and you can research on how the trains of several hundreds of kilometers were undertaken in Thailand. On the dot. Finished on schedule. China, Cambodia, India and many more countries have effectively built their railway systems, and keep improving them. We are so late in this aspect for more than fifty years.
Sad to say, governments past and present failed miserably for having no efficient railway system, or shall we say we have no railway system at all. I keep recalling this. In the early years there was. Passengers and goods traveled from Tutuban in Divisoria, Manila up to Damortis in La Union. There was also the southern lines, the so-called Bicol Express. In the northern line, the trains made several stops along the route. After making a stop in Malolos, Bulacan it also stopped in San Fernando and then again in Angeles.
To recall under the Arroyo administration, an effort was made to revived the lines. Funds were made available and a Chinese construction firm, the Sinomach undertook the construction. Holy smoke, nothing came out of it because at the very start it was already attended by corruption. The people whom Arroyo trusted to finish the project somehow reportedly pocketed huge slice of the borrowed funds from China Eximbank. Only 25% of the project was done. Those responsible were laughing on their way to the banks. The Aquino government failed to prosecute those responsible. Even the Duterte administration seems have forgotten all about it. I presume up to the present times the government is still servicing the loan since a sovereign guarantee provision is attached to it.
Traffic everywhere. The country is losing billions of pesos everyday. More so now that petroleum prices are surging on a weekly basis. The simple analysis will indicate that it is a direct consequence of obvious inaction by past and present leaders both from the national and local levels. We can no longer ignore how cities and other urban areas getting paralyzed due to traffic gridlocks almost happening everywhere.
Progress is not a quaint idea. Vision and looking towards the future were detained in the past by most of government leaders. Look at our towns and cities today. They are no longer liveable and this is due to lack of vision among the leaders of yesteryears. I insist on repeating this. How many presidents of our country came from the central and northern Luzon, say Elpidio Quirino, Ferdinand Marcos, Ramon Magsaysay, the two Macapagals and the two Arroyos. What happened to their advisers? There was never a national strategy to this effect.
Almost all streets in Metro Manila are clogged. Too stressful driving around Metro Manila anytime of day and night. And coming from Pampanga going to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), Mall of Asia, Solaire and City of Dreams casinos you might as well forget the trip. Our country is in need of more infrastructures now more than ever because of the burgeoning population. It is most welcome, but a word of caution. This is an unsolicited advice to President Bongbong Marcos. Don’t over borrow.The government debt is several trillion pesos already. The yellow light is blinking.