Environment group supports Pasig River Expressway project 

An environmental think tank took up the cudgels for San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) proposed P95-billion Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) project, saying opposition to the project is “premature”, according to a report by BusinessMirror.

“They seem ready with their guns even if the detailed plan has yet to be presented. Why?” BenCy Ellorin, an environmentalist and convenor of the Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and the Environment said in a statement.

The 19.37-kilometer PAREX of SMC Infrastructure will traverse the cities of Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasig, and Taguig.

Last month, SMC signed a supplemental toll operations agreement with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways for the construction of PAREX which gives Ramon Ang’s SMC a 30-year franchise to build and operate the PAREX along the Pasig River banks within 36 months.

The company will shoulder the P95-billion cost to build PAREX, with no taxpayer or government money used.

The project, however, was met with criticism and skepticism.

In defense of the project, Ellorin said the issues raised against the projects are “conjectures and premature.”

He said the group would rather engage the project proponent, San Miguel, to ensure the fulfillment of its plan to integrate mass transport system through the bus rapid transit (BRT), bike lanes and the protection and enhancement of heritage and historical sites along with the project.

“There is also no showing yet in any disclosed documents that certain heritage and historical sites would be destroyed, while the issue of the project covering the Pasig River seems a wild claim,” said Ellorin.

The group said SMC’s plan to spend P2-billion for Pasig River rehabilitation, the bus rapid transit, and bike lanes, is “a laudable example of integrating environmental restoration in major infrastructure development projects.”

It also lauded SMC President Ramon S. Ang for pushing the bus rapid transit, a modern mass transportation system.

The project, Ellorin said, could become a model of green infrastructure, and “one that enhances environmental rehabilitation instead of contributing to the degradation of host ecosystems.”

The hybrid expressway project is touted to be the country’s first green hybrid highway.

“It is good that the environment has been placed front and center in this project,” said Ellorin.

SMC will separately undertake the clean-up and rehabilitation of the Pasig River alongside the PAREX project. The Filipino company earmarked P2 billion for the extraction some 3 million tons of silt and solid waste from the river to improve the river’s carrying capacity and flow, thereby mitigating flooding and improving the water quality of the river.

A rehabilitated river, according to SMC project planners, would make possible the safe use of the river as a mode of transportation.

The company will build a six-lane elevated expressway that will run along the banks of the river, from Radial Road 10 in Manila to C-6 Road or the South East Metro Manila Expressway in Taguig. Once operational, PAREX will link the eastern and western cities of Metro Manila and will connect to the Skyway system—realizing the vision of an integrated elevated road network that will link the north, south, east, and west corridors of the capital.