Alternative ports to ease MM’s traffic problem

The traffic conditions in Metro Manila being what they are today, allow me to share with you my thoughts on the matter.

To ease the problem, it is urgent that international ports outside Metro Manila be built at two critical points—Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan, and San Miguel Bay in

Camarines Sur—to rationalize the distances traveled by cargo trucks carrying supplies for the whole of Luzon.

In Lingayen Gulf, we can build an international port with five or up to 10 times the capacity of the Port of Manila or the Manila International Container Port. Such a port should be able to handle all the cargoes bound or coming from Metro Manila and other parts of northern Luzon. Warehouses can be built along the highway from

Pangasinan down to Tarlac and Pampanga, and trucks hauling 40-foot container vans can travel only up to Malolos, Bulacan. Ten-wheeler vans can handle cargoes bound for Metro Manila.

Supplies for southern Luzon can be handled by an alternate international port in San Miguel Bay, Camarines Sur. Trucks hauling 40-foot container vans from the south may be allowed to travel up to Calamba City in Laguna. Warehouses can be built along the highway, from the provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte,

Quezon, and Laguna. This way, 40-foot container vans will not have to use streets in Metro Manila.

As input to more advance planning and to make faster the movement of passengers and goods, rail transit systems for Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao should now be planned—for implementation within 10 to 35 years. Even bullet trains should be considered, given the prospect that by 2050, our population would be nearing 200 million.

But of course, the situation of the coastlines of both proposed international ports have to be assessed for viability. Should they turn out unviable, alternative sites should be considered and assessed. I suggest Balanga City in Bataan, and the coastline from Balayan to Lemery in Batangas.

The immediate construction of these ports is a must, so government can free itself from a reactive mentality, and so we can prepare ourselves for the Asean Economic Community and welcome business prospects from around the world, as we steadily gain recognition as a responsible inhabitant of the global village.

—FILEMON F. GONZALES JR.,

Timpolok,

Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu