Leni Robredo says transport improvement is her priority

DAGUPAN CITY — She may be aspiring for the vice presidency, but Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo on Tuesday said she shares the woes of commuters whenever she endures the weekly 10-hour bus ride from Manila to her home in Naga City.

So developing a working mass transport system has been one of her priorities, she said during the Children Summit on Health organized by the city government.

“You are lucky here because you have highways like the North Luzon Expressway, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. We have to pass through all the towns. The 400-kilometer trip to Naga from Manila takes 10 hours while the same length of road to the north takes only four to five hours,” Robredo later told reporters here.

“And when you get (un)lucky and the towns are celebrating town fiestas such as in Quezon province,… the bus ride to Naga extends to 16 hours,” she said.

“We have a railroad but the trains are not running,” she said.

Naga has an airport, she added, “which is outside the city and which has a short runway and when it rains, even lightly, flights are canceled.”

“I believe that to push rural development, there should be an efficient means of transportation. Without it, the economy won’t progress the way we want,” she said.

Robredo said she pushed for Republic Act 10638, which extended the corporate life of the Philippine National Railway by another 50 years. She also authored a law increasing its capitalization not only to improve the south railway line but also the north line.

“We are really hoping for the PNR to function because it’s the only way we can compete,” she said.

Robredo said an efficient transportation system would not only benefit the rural areas but also Metro Manila.

“Metro Manila will be decongested if the opportunities are available in other areas where residents need not go to the big city to find work,” she said.