The politics of interchanges
SunStar Editorial
THE construction of an interchange along Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway or SCTEx is now officially a controversial one.
Over the weekend, one group composed of no less than Governor Ed Panlilio, City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, business leader Rene Romero and a slew of businessmen and professionals met to make it known to all and sundry their position on the interchange issue. It is supporting strongly the proposed interchange at the Manuali portion (Porac) of SCTEx.
The particular interchange was the one approved by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and so it was aptly dubbed GMA-Porac interchange, probably to scare off others who have different proposals.
For the record, Senator Manuel Lapid has proposed the original Porac interchange, not in Manuali area, for sure, and which apparently was approved in principle by the President who mentioned it in her State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July.
Come now the honorable Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan of the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development (SCAD) and Congressman Carmelo Lazatin who have come up with another proposal for an interchange somewhere in Angeles City.
In the weekend briefing before the Panlilio-Rodriguez-Romero group, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) chairman Narciso Abaya Jr. made it clear and certain that among the three proposed interchanges, the one likely to materialize is the one with the President’s initials on it.
And he was not simply being politically correct, although that argument counts much if not the most, even if he did not admit it.
It’s not just that the President has already issued an official directive to BCDA that the Manuali site should be where the GMA-Porac interchange should be. And Abaya has declared that he has no intention whatsoever of risking being fired by his boss for not following her instructions.
The Manuali site is the most ideal of the all the competing locations vis-à-vis the proposals of Senator Lapid and Secretary Pamintuan and Congressman Lazatin.
By ideal, he meant less cost, less technical difficulty and less of other problems that BCDA would want to face to do its job of building an interchange at SCTEx.
It doesn’t also help -- and this one did not come from Abaya but from one of the leaders of the group -- that Senator Lapid reportedly has 60 hectares near his proposed interchange. Ditto Secretary Pamintuan, who reportedly owns about 30 hectares near the Margot area where he and Congressman Lazatin would want BCDA to build an interchange.
Aside from the perceived vested interest of the proponents, the problem with the Margot proposal, is that it will compromise the building of another runway near that area for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
The last has not been heard on this issue, what with the other proponents apparently bent on politically muscling their way for their favored interchanges. Somehow, building interchanges along the SCTEx, especially in the President’s home province, is too important to be left to engineers and technocrats.
Politicians want more than just being heard. They want to have the last say.
THE construction of an interchange along Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway or SCTEx is now officially a controversial one.
Over the weekend, one group composed of no less than Governor Ed Panlilio, City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, business leader Rene Romero and a slew of businessmen and professionals met to make it known to all and sundry their position on the interchange issue. It is supporting strongly the proposed interchange at the Manuali portion (Porac) of SCTEx.
The particular interchange was the one approved by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and so it was aptly dubbed GMA-Porac interchange, probably to scare off others who have different proposals.
For the record, Senator Manuel Lapid has proposed the original Porac interchange, not in Manuali area, for sure, and which apparently was approved in principle by the President who mentioned it in her State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July.
Come now the honorable Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan of the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development (SCAD) and Congressman Carmelo Lazatin who have come up with another proposal for an interchange somewhere in Angeles City.
In the weekend briefing before the Panlilio-Rodriguez-Romero group, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) chairman Narciso Abaya Jr. made it clear and certain that among the three proposed interchanges, the one likely to materialize is the one with the President’s initials on it.
And he was not simply being politically correct, although that argument counts much if not the most, even if he did not admit it.
It’s not just that the President has already issued an official directive to BCDA that the Manuali site should be where the GMA-Porac interchange should be. And Abaya has declared that he has no intention whatsoever of risking being fired by his boss for not following her instructions.
The Manuali site is the most ideal of the all the competing locations vis-à-vis the proposals of Senator Lapid and Secretary Pamintuan and Congressman Lazatin.
By ideal, he meant less cost, less technical difficulty and less of other problems that BCDA would want to face to do its job of building an interchange at SCTEx.
It doesn’t also help -- and this one did not come from Abaya but from one of the leaders of the group -- that Senator Lapid reportedly has 60 hectares near his proposed interchange. Ditto Secretary Pamintuan, who reportedly owns about 30 hectares near the Margot area where he and Congressman Lazatin would want BCDA to build an interchange.
Aside from the perceived vested interest of the proponents, the problem with the Margot proposal, is that it will compromise the building of another runway near that area for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
The last has not been heard on this issue, what with the other proponents apparently bent on politically muscling their way for their favored interchanges. Somehow, building interchanges along the SCTEx, especially in the President’s home province, is too important to be left to engineers and technocrats.
Politicians want more than just being heard. They want to have the last say.
Labels: clark, expressway, sctex, subic
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