Should senators wait 3 or 6 years in between terms?

Senators who are elected to office can serve for just two consecutive six-year terms.

But how come they can run again for the same position after “resting” for only three years? Shouldn’t it be six years?

After all, a single term of office for senators is six years.

In the coming elections, we have Lito Lapid, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, Serge Osmeña, Pia Cayetano and Juan Ponce Enrile running for senator even if they left office only in 2016.

I hope the Commission on Elections can clarify this matter.

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It is time for the Department of Education to look into its Automatic Payroll Deduction System (APDS) for public school teachers.

With their measly monthly salary of P20,179, teachers take home less than P10,000 after deductions — taxes, contributions to PhilHealth/Government Service Insurance System/Pag-Ibig, and payment for loans from savings associations, thrift banks or local banks.

However, the General Appropriations Act of 2018 has mandated that deductions should not reduce employees’ salaries to below P5,000.

The APDS implements the order of preference on a “first in, first serve system” where older obligations take priority.

But this is no longer the case. Government dues and contributions come first while loans to thrift banks and small-time lenders are the last to be paid.

This unreasonable interference increases the risk that teachers will default on their loans, thus restricting their available financial credit.

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In December, San Miguel’s Skyway 3, an elevated expressway with a length of 17.54 kilometers, will be operational from Balintawak in Quezon City to Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City.

Connecting North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEx), the expressway will pass through Araneta Avenue, Quezon Avenue, E. Rodriguez Avenue, Aurora Boulevard, Nagtahan/Aurora Boulevard, Plaza Dilao, Paco, President Quirino Avenue, South Superhighway and Gil Puyat Avenue.

There is also Manny Pangilinan’s North-South Connector Road which will begin in March.

Targeted for completion in 2020, the 8-km-long, all elevated four-lane toll expressway will connect Segment 10 of C3 Road in Caloocan City to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Sta. Mesa, Manila, all the way to Skyway 3. This expressway will traverse over the Philippine National Railways’ tracks across Manila with interchanges on C3 Road/5th Avenue and España Boulevard in Manila.

Aside from reducing travel time between SLEx and NLEx to only 21 minutes, the Skyway 3 and North-South Connector Road will decongest traffic, making it easier for motorists to seek alternate routes while freeing up Edsa and C5 Road.

But to reduce 35 percent of traffic on Edsa, the P1.6-billion BGC-Ortigas Center Link Road with a new bridge across Pasig River via Barrio Kapitolyo must be finished.

This will happen in March 2020 when traffic passing through the Guadalupe and Bagong Ilog bridges will shift to the new Sta. Monica-Lawton Bridge.

Until then, we are forced to suffer through “carmageddons” and “carpocalypses.”

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