PICTURE this, sometime in the near future: You live in Valenzuela City but would like to go to NAIA Terminal 3 to catch an international flight.
You worry about reaching the airport because of horrible traffic congestion in Metro Manila particularly during rush hours.
What to do? With luggage in tow, you take the Metro Manila Subway, which will have 17 stations stretching from East Valenzuela in the north to Bicutan in the south.
The 33-kilometer subway will also have a spur line that connects to NAIA Terminal 3, meaning the country’s main airport will finally be connected to a railway.
With the construction of the subway system picking up speed since last year, the country’s first underground railway project is expected to contribute to easing traffic congestion particularly along the major thoroughfares in Metro Manila.
But here’s the catch. The idyllic vision of a clean, comfortable and convenient means of transportation in the city may become reality only after a long period of waiting.
That’s because the Metro Manila Subway, along with the North-South Commuter Railway and other projects, is finding it difficult to move forward because of right-of-way (ROW) issues.
In the country’s loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and Asia Development Bank for these projects, the people who will be affected due to ROW acquisition must be given compensation in full prior to their displacement.
This policy is in accord with the financial institution’s environmental and social guidelines.
But the country’s ROW Act provides for payment of only 50 percent of the negotiated price of the sold land upon the deed of sale.
The remaining will only be paid after the land has been completely cleared of structures, improvements, crops and trees.
The conflict between what the funding agency stipulates and the provision of the Philippine law on right-of-way is seen to delay the construction because the people who were supposed to already move out would remain in the property while the clearing process is being done.
These people would naturally want to wait for the remainder of the payment before leaving the premises of the property.
Given this conflict, the Metro Manila Subway project might not be able to achieve its target completion before the end of the Marcos Jr. administration in 2028.
But there’s still hope that a few stations out of the total 17 would be operational by the time a new administration takes over in 2028.
What is needed now to speed up the completion of the vital subway project could be a compromise agreement between the project funders, JICA and ADB, on the one hand, and the Philippine government, on the other, on the terms of payment for those to be adversely affected by right-of-way issues.
