Row over NLEx-SLEx connector road

President Aquino announced in his latest State of the Nation Address that one of his big projects is an elevated roadway interconnecting the NLEx (North Luzon Expressway) and the SLEx (South Luzon Expressway), and that it would be finished by 2015. The two toll roads will greatly lessen the traffic jams in Metro Manila, especially Edsa and C-5, as vehicles going from north to south of Metro Manila don’t have to go through the metropolis anymore but above it.

Huge cargo trucks carrying produce and provincial buses and other vehicles carrying passengers from northern provinces to southern provinces and vice versa contribute greatly to the traffic congestion in Metro Manila’s main roads. The daily traffic jams result in the loss of many man-hours, wastage of precious fuel, and increase in air and noise pollution. Even when these trucks and buses have no business in Metro Manila and their drivers want to avoid it because the jams take so much of their time, there is no other way. The solution is to build bypasses to go around the metropolis—one around Laguna Lake and another along Manila Bay.

But the President’s interconnection bypass will not go around Metro Manila but above it. Elevated tollways will be built above the right of way of the railroad tracks of the Philippine National Railways (PNR). Private corporations will build them and get back their investments from the toll fees to be paid by motorists.

The two projects have been awarded to Citra-SMC (Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp.) and MPIC (Metro Pacific Investments Corp.). P-Noy issued a very clear directive: The two contractors should split 50-50 the construction costs of the common area for the toll road project. He gave the order last May after meeting with the top officials of the two conglomerates.

Recently, however, the DOTC/TRB (Department of Transportation and Communications/Toll Regulatory Board) has been at loggerheads with the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) over P-Noy’s directive. The DPWH, which is the engineering arm of the government, is being criticized for not giving up its responsibility to provide integrated planning of the country’s highways. The DPWH is merely following the instruction of the President to implement both connector roads, Skyway Stage 3 and the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road.

The two projects have common alignment and, in the public interest, the DPWH wants to make sure, per P-Noy’s orders, that the two proponents talk in good faith and agree on the construction and operation of the common alignment and the interconnection of the two connector roads.

Certain sectors, however, including the DOTC/TRB, are taking issue with the DPWH’s authority to issue a toll concession agreement for the NLEx-SLEx Project. But why criticize the DPWH for this when its mandate is grounded on the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) Law and Executive Order 686?

The DPWH said it is 100-percent behind the government’s PPP (Public-Private Partnership) program and has, in fact, already held a public bidding for a toll road project under it. It has lined up other toll road projects, including the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road, under the PPP.

There is no question on the authority of the DOTC/TRB to issue toll operation permits and to collect toll fees for the use of the toll roads. But that authority does not prohibit the grant of the toll concession agreement under the BOT Law and EO 686.

P-Noy has given the go-ahead to MPIC and Citra-SMC to start construction on their respective projects by the end of the year, but the DOTC/TRB seems hell-bent on breaking up the vital project even before it starts.

Ironically, the two men who head the two departments that are in the spotlight because of this controversy are known to be the most credible Cabinet members in the present administration. Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas and Public Works Secretary Babes Singson carry enough weight in Malacañang to have the ear of the President on almost all matters relating to the country’s infrastructure programs. Both are known to be honest straight-shooters. Both are expected to tolerate no mischief in any PPP project.

But there seem to be outside forces—involving government lobbyists and corporate boardroom players—coming into play to put the two department heads against each other and, in effect, sabotage the President’s directive to speed up travel time from Metro Manila’s north to south ends.

The TRB, in particular, seems intent on sabotaging P-Noy’s plans by ruling recently that San Miguel Corp., by virtue of having bought into the local Citra firm, holds the original right to the connector road deal and that the MPIC proposal is a new project and therefore is subject to a Swiss challenge.

So what happened to the President’s directive that the two connector roads be constructed at the same time?

The President had said that by connecting the NLEx and SLEx, manufacturers in the northern and southern provinces would be able to deliver their goods faster—a development that should yield savings.

“It will also enhance the connectivity between Naia (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) and the Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga. Tourism [will be] greatly enhanced as well,” he had said.

Citra and MPIC were previously locked in debates over who should be given the NLEx-SLEx connector road project.

The President settled the controversy last May by saying: “The two projects can be built simultaneously. There is enough demand. There is common alignment but the two will eventually separate.”