Pipeline of Projects of Manny Pangilinan's Tollways Unit 'Running Dry'

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is “now dry,” company president Rodrigo E. Franco said on Thursday. The Manny Pangilinan-controlled unit has a number of projects up for completion and will soon start commercial operations, including Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (Cclex), which will become the third bridge to connect Cebu and Mactan; the completion of the Nlex Connector, the Calax Cavite Segment, and the Cavitex C5 Link.  

The expressway holdings company forecasts that the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex), Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (Sctex), Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex), Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax), and the Cclex will drive a 32-percent increase in overall traffic volume next year. 

The company expects the pickup as demand for travel continues to pick up amid the easing of travel restrictions.  

“In terms of our traffic forecast in our expressways we expect an additional 32 percent of vehicles on our roads by next year. Currently, we serve more than 700,000 vehicles per day in all our expressways, which have a total length of more than 500 kilometers,” he said during a forum hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP). 

Franco cited data from Tomtom Traffic Index, which showed that traffic in Metro Manila is picking up with congestion reaching 509.3 kilometers on October 25 alone. 

MPTC, along with its subsidiaries, is the largest tollways operator in the Philippines.

The completion of project means, however, that its pipeline “is now dry.” 

“We don’t have many projects,” Franco said. “We may have a couple that will start construction. So for us, on top of our wishlist is that we hope that the bottleneck in terms of awarding projects will be addressed so we can have new projects and help in the economic recovery.”