‘Aquino keen on central terminals’

When provincial bus terminals are relocated to the northern and southern end points of Metro Manila, the flow of traffic in the capital—especially on EDSA—will be lighter, according to Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino.

Tolentino said that no less than President Aquino was keen on making the project a reality.

“The President wants this to happen,” he told the Inquirer in a recent interview. “He is keen on having the bus terminals to decongest [traffic around] Metro Manila.”

With some 85 terminals on EDSA, about 7,000 provincial buses use the thoroughfare, making it one of the busiest in the metropolis.

According to Tolentino, the interagency committee in charge of the project headed by Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas III was now “filtering sites for the south terminal.”

Citing an informal study, the MMDA chairman said that two terminals were needed for the southern corridor to service two kinds of passengers—those bound for Laguna and Quezon provinces, Bicol Region and the Visayas area and those traveling to the provinces of Cavite and Batangas.

He added that two idle government lots were being eyed for the sites: one belonging to Philippine National Construction Corp. near SLEx and a vacant space owned by the Philippine Reclamation Authority on Coastal Road.

As for the location of the northern terminal, the committee was looking at a privately owned area in Balintawak, which would require expropriation. The other option was a lot also in Quezon City, Tolentino said.