Marcos promise: Cut ‘terrible stories’ of parents not seeing kids due to traffic jam

FILE PHOTO: Station locations for the new subway are shown on a DOTr map, along with their connections to the existing Metro Rail Transit 3 and Light Rail Transit 1 and 2 lines.

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has pledged to lessen “terrible stories” of parents not being able to spend time with their children because of severe traffic congestion.

Marcos made this promise Thursday as he also gave assurance that the government is pushing for key railway projects to address transportation problems.

“We will reduce the terrible stories that we hear of people who no longer see their children because they come home at 1:30 in the morning and the children are asleep,” he said during the signing of the Metro Manila Subway contract packages at Malacañan Palace.

“They have to wake up at four o’clock in the morning to get back on the bus to fight with the traffic coming back to work. And that the subway and all our public transport systems will be able to help and to remedy,” he added.

READ: Suffering commuters, higher fare, fewer trips: PH transport woes pile up

Aside from the Metro Manila Subway project, the government is continuing the Metro Rail Transit-7, the Light Rail Transit-1 Cavite Extension, and the Philippine National Railway Clark Phases 1 and 2.

Marcos said these projects are seen to improve the country’s rail transit system to make it a feasible choice for commuters.

The Metro Manila Subway project is eyed to cut travel time between the cities of Quezon and Pasay to 35 minutes from the current one and a half hours.

More than 500,000 passengers per day from Valenzuela City to Parañaque City are also expected to benefit from the Metro Manila Subway project.

KGA/abc