New Laguna Lake Highway to ease ‘carmageddon’ — DPWH

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Thursday that the newly-opened Laguna Lake Highway would help ease the traffic along EDSA and C-5 this holiday season.

In Mark Salazar's report on "24 Oras" on Thursday, DPWH Secretary Mark Villar said the 10-kilometer highway costing P1.28 billion was not the only road project they plan to open ahead of the expected "carmageddon."

He touted the Harbor Link Segment, which was designed to cut travel time between NLEX and Port of Manila.

"Bubuksan po namin ng harbour link, 'yung... connector sa (Manila) harbor area papuntang NLEX. Yung mga trucks at kotse galing Manila Harbor hindi na kailangan dumaan sa mga major road ng Metro Manila, dederetso na ng NLEX," Villar said.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the administration plans to spend up to P9 trillion on Build, Build, Build projects.

"We plan to spend eight to nine trillion pesos -- hindi billion -- trillion. Seventy-five major projects, mga train, mga subway, mga highway na katulad nito at magagawa namin 'yun sa loob ng limang taon," he said.

When asked about fears that trillions of pesos worth of Build, Build, Build projects would bury the Philippines in debt to China, Villar said, "Mga projects natin, hindi lang po sa China meron tayong JICA from Japan ang bulk ay karamihan ng projects natin ay locally funded."

The officials said that Filipino workers would be hired for the infrastructure projects, and not foreigners.

"Hindi totoo na mare-replace ang mga Filipino workers kasi sa China mismo kulang din sila sa laborers," Diokno said. Margaret Claire Layug/ LDF, GMA News