Pacquiao thumbs down Pasig River Expressway, wants to turn it into a tourism site instead

ROUTE LESS TRAVELED As motorists brace for a fresh round of fuel price increases on Tuesday, Metro folk take a boat ride across the Pasig River from Mandaluyong City to Makati City and back, at P5 each. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — Instead of building an expressway along the Pasig River, presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao on Friday said he would rather have Metro Manila’s main waterway developed into a tourist destination, likening it to the Brisbane River in Australia.

Pacquiao said that while the Pasig River Expressway (PAREx) project, which is being pushed by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) president Ramon Ang, is “laudable,” it could cause irreversible damage to the Pasig River.

If he is elected as president, he said he would push for an honest-to-goodness clean-up and rehabilitation of the Pasig River, saying the river also needs to be dredged to remove the heavy silt that has turned it into murky sewage.

“May plano ako dyan sa Pasig River. Napakaganda niyan na idevelop. I dredge lang yan, linisin yung tubig saka i-develop ‘yung gilid, ‘yung easement niya. Siguro  talagang parang magiging lugar yan sa Brisbane na ang ganda ng ilog, maraming namamasyal. Napakaganda. Dapat i-develop lang ‘yung Pasig na hindi kailangang takpan,” Pacquiao said.

(I have a plan for the Pasig River. It’s good if it were developed. Just dredge it, clean it, and develop the banks. It could be similar to the Brisbane river in Australia where the river is so beautiful that many visit it. We should develop the Pasig river and not cover it.)

Pacquiao said his idea to turn the Pasig River into “a beautiful promenade and river ferry superhighway” came when he inspected its entire stretch all the way to Laguna before the pandemic.

He said it is worthy to invest for the clean-up and rehabilitation of the Pasig River because of its potential as a major attraction for tourists.

Instead of a skyway, the boxing champion-turned-politician said a modern end-to-end river ferry should be built, which can be integrated into a multi-modal transport system for Metro Manila.

He noted that building an expressway on top of the river could seriously damage the river and can even cause severe flooding in its surrounding areas.

“Pag-aralan natin nang husto kung ano ang maganda pero nakikita ko na ‘yun ang mas maganda kaysa maglagay ka doon sa gitna ng mga poste. Eh lalong (babaha). Saan dadaan yung tubig?” Pacquiao said.

(Let’s study carefully what is better pero I think my idea is better instead of building an expressway over it. It could cause more floods.)

SMC earlier assured that the 19.27-kilometer Pasig River Expressway is a “safe, reliable and sustainable infrastructure” that can benefit motorists, public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians amid opposition from advocacy groups over environmental concerns.

However, some groups have opposed the project, saying it would contribute to more heat in Metro Manila.

The Pasig River was declared by ecologists as “biologically dead” in the 1990s. But numerous government and private efforts to clean up and rehabilitate the waterway has led to its slow revival.

EDV