Apec road scheme starts, ends with sidewalk births

THE COUNTRY’S hosting of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit began and ended with new life finding its way even on hellish streets.

Another woman gave birth along a busy thoroughfare in Parañaque City on Friday after she got stuck in heavy traffic caused by the road closures for the Apec meetings.

Upon alighting from a passenger bus at Coastal Mall along Coastal Road around 8 a.m., 31-year-old Aileen Butacain sat on the sidewalk and, with husband Enrique by her side, gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

A vendor in the area, who reportedly had experience working as a midwife, helped the woman in the delivery.

Butacain plans to name the child Coastaline, after the mall, according to emergency responders from Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) who brought the mother, Enrique, and their newborn to Ospital ng Maynila.

Enrique told the MMDA personnel that they came all the way from Tanza, Cavite province, early Friday morning to go to that hospital, but encountered heavy traffic.

Butacain began experiencing extreme pain as the bus entered Coastal Road, he said.

Traffic on Coastal Road was severely affected by the closure of roads near Ninoy Aquino International Airport because of the Apec meetings as early as Monday morning, a day before the holidays declared by the government from Nov. 17 to 20.

The standstill forced thousands to walk for kilometers just to reach their workplace.

Later that day, news broke on social media that a woman—said to be one of the stranded—gave birth to a boy in front of the Department of Foreign Affairs consular office on Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque. A Facebook post by another commuter said she witnessed and took a video of the birth around 6 a.m.

The mother, identified by authorities as Lorna Justo, was later brought together with her child to San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay City.

At 3 p.m. on Friday, the MMDA reopened Coastal and other roads covered by the Apec traffic scheme, following the departure of the world leaders who attended the summit.

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