QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Thursday urged the Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to decide swiftly on a proposal to open an integrated bus terminal in the northern part of Metro Manila to “once and for all” ease traffic on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue.
“I’m calling on the MMDA and the DOTr to decide on the site of the proposed north bus terminal posthaste. Please make it fast because we are getting quite impatient,” he said after a meeting of the Metro Manila Mayors Council.
Bautista, the council chairman, said Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan has already identified a site for the proposed integrated bus terminal, “but the DoTr apparently prefers to locate the facility within the railway line.”
The construction of an interim northern provincial bus terminal near the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City has been on the MMDA’s drawing board since 2013.
The facility is designed to be an endpoint for over 370 provincial buses arriving in the capital from Pangasinan, Tarlac, and other parts of northern Luzon.
Provincial buses would no longer be allowed to enter Edsa once the north bus terminal starts operating.
“The congestion at Edsa is heavier in areas where provincial bus terminals are located. Like in the Tomas Morato area, buses enter smaller roads built for only light vehicles. Aside from congestion, those buses can easily tear up the roads, prompting us [local governments] to give way for repairs,” Bautista said.
“We local officials are being blamed, particularly the mayors, for such. So now, I’m calling on our partners in the national government to be decisive and act immediately on the matter.”
Meanwhile, Bautista said the city will develop seven foreclosed properties in District 3 as socialized housing sites for informal settler families located in Kaingin 1 and 2, Barangay Pansol.
From 2005 to 2007, seven properties with a land area of 8,456 square meters located within Kaingin 1 were forfeited in favor of the city government.
City Resolution 7110 of 2017, introduced by Councilor Kate Abigael Coseteng, urged Bautista to develop the foreclosed properties into a housing site.
