As President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday pushed for a more modern transport system, residents of Las Piñas complained of ever-worsening traffic in the city due to projects associated with the Villar family.

Marcos graced the inauguration of the Light Rail Transit-1 Cavite Extension (L1CE) Project Phase 1 in Parañaque City, saying: “Our journey towards a more seamless and modernized public transportation system does not end here.” “We are committed to building station after station, reaching as far and as fast as our people’s needs dictate,” he added.

L1CE Phase 1 is the first railway project to be completed under the Marcos administration through a public-private partnership (PPP).

It will reduce travel time from Parañaque City to Quezon City by almost an hour while servicing an additional 80,000 passengers to LRT-1’s daily ridership of 323,000.

Once fully operational, travel time between the entire stretch of the LRT-1 Cavite Extension Project Baclaran from Parañaque to Bacoor, Cavite, will be reduced from one hour and 10 minutes to 25 minutes.

In Las Piñas, Euan Rex Torralba, president of the BF Resort Homeowners Association, said traffic in their area has significantly worsened in recent years due to two bridges connecting Bacoor in Cavite to the city’s largest private subdivision.

He said the construction of the “Cavite Bridge” and the “Dear Joe Bridge” were controversial since they were begun in 2018 after the national and local permits, as well as the contract plans and structural designs for the bridges, were discovered to be “bogus.”

“The hard fact is that these two bridges, which connect Villar’s vast properties in Bacoor to BF Resort Village in Las Piñas, serve more motorists from Cavite than from Las Piñas,” Torralba said.

Strained roadways

He said the bridges were built adjacent to BF Resort Village. The Cavite Bridge connects the Villar Farm in Bacoor to Zapote River Drive.

The bridges and roads link the Villar family’s malls, subdivisions and retail establishments — all within the boundaries of BF Resort Village in Barangays Talon Dos and Talon Singko.

Zapote River Drive, from the Villar Sipag Farm School Bridge (Cavite Bridge) to Pamplona Park, was opened to motorists in 2021.

Data gathered by the homeowners association from 2022 to the present showed that more than 8,000 vehicles pass over these bridges daily, traveling to and from Bacoor.

Torralba noted that this number will continue to increase as the Villar City development expands and connects to these roads.

“These 8,000 vehicles have put significant strain on the traffic system, particularly on Onelia Jose Street in BF Resort Village and CV Starr Avenue in Philamlife Village,” Torralba said.

In response, the BF Resort Village board of directors implemented a strict policy in 2022 to regulate access to their area.

P2.4B-P3.5B daily losses

However, the policy faced legal challenges, with Senator Cynthia Villar filing cases that resulted in a court issuing a temporary restraining order against the policy. The court also issued an injunction, allowing unregulated access to the two bridges.

The Philamlife Village Homeowners Association has taken steps to limit traffic by imposing an early closure of subdivision gates, preventing vehicles coming from the Cavite Bridge from entering after 8 p.m.

DAILY TRIBUNE reached out to the Villars up to press time for their reaction to the complaints.

In 2014, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said the Philippine economy was reeling from economic losses of at least P2.4 billion daily due to the heavy Metro Manila vehicle traffic.

Likewise, a 2017 study by the Asian Development Bank painted a bleaker picture of P3.5 billion being lost per day due to the snarled roadways in the capital region.

The losses cited by JICA and ADB include the cost of lost time, fuel consumption, and increased transportation costs for both businesses and individuals.

The JICA study emphasized that without significant improvements in infrastructure, traffic congestion would continue to worsen, further straining the country’s economy.

Some of the key factors it said contributed to the traffic were the rapid population growth, lack of sufficient public transportation infrastructure, and increasing number of private vehicles on the road.

Marcos Sr. legacy

In his remarks opening L1CE Phase 1, Marcos acknowledged his father’s efforts in initiating the construction of Metro Manila’s first urban rail transit system.

He noted that the initiative grew into the larger rail transit system that serves the metropolis.

In September 1984, Marcos’s father and namesake, then president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. inaugurated the LRT-1’s United Nations to Baclaran stations.

“On this day, no one is happier than his son in seeing that his father’s foresight is being validated by another work that expands the mass transit that he had built for the people that he loved,” Marcos Jr. said.

“The L1CE project has been a long time in the making — spanning five administrations starting with President (Joseph) Estrada to President (Gloria) Arroyo, President (Noynoy) Aquino, President (Rodrigo) Duterte and now to mine.”

The project aims to alleviate traffic in the cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Bacoor, Cavite. Shortly after the ceremony, Marcos boarded the train and returned to the Dr. Santos Station.

The President noted that various key railway projects are currently being undertaken by the government.

These include the Unified Grand Central Station, the Metro Manila Subway Project, MRT-7, the North-South Commuter Railway, MRT-4, and Philippine National Railways South Long Haul.

The President pointed out that some of the ongoing transport projects may not be completed within his tenure as these long-term endeavors extend beyond administrations.

Patience, passion

“This is the nature of railway development and of any large-scale development: this is not a short-term endeavor. It requires patience, persistence, passion and commitment that extend beyond immediate timelines,” he stressed.

Phase 1 connects the Baclaran Station in Pasay City to the Dr. Santos Station in Parañaque City through five new stations, including the Redemptorist-ASEANA Station, MIA Road Station, Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) Station, Ninoy Aquino Avenue Station, and Dr. Santos Station.

These stations will add six kilometers to the transit line, extending the total alignment of LRT-1 to 26 km. from the current 20 km.