Arroyo eyes revival, expansion of Ro-Ro system

House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vowed Friday to push for the revival and expansion of the Roll-on-Roll-off (Ro-Ro) transport system, one of the flagship projects during her term as President.

In 2003, Arroyo issued an executive order to promote Ro-Ro, a system designed to carry rolling stock cargo that does not require cranes for loading or unloading.

The 919-kilometer Strong Republic Nautical Highway was one of  Arroyo’s priority programs to ensure fast and economical movement of goods and people, and to boost domestic tourism and trade within the major islands.

Arroyo said she was saddened by the decision of the Aquino administration, her successor, to discontinue the project.

“We built many Ro-Ro ports all over the country but mostly in the Visayas and I was so sad hear a few years ago that the administration after mine discontinued the rest of the Ro-Ro port projects,” she said during the 11th anniversary of the Bacolod Silay airport, which was built and inaugurated during her administration in 2007.

She said she would convene the House oversight committee on Ro-Ro to determine the status of the country’s ports and how to improve them.

“When I go back to Manila, I am going to convene the oversight committee for the Ro-Ro because with the help of the PPA (Philippine Ports Authority) and the DOTR (Department of Transportation) to compare the old ADB (Asian Development Bank) study with what are the the projects that had been canceled and see what should be revived,” she said.

Arroyo said the Ro-Ro system has helped lower the poverty level in the country.

“When I assumed the presidency, the survey said 39 percent of all Filipinos were very poor. I believe that the Ro-Ro Transport System has helped a lot to lift up some of the very poor from extreme poverty, as they were able to find jobs and now have some money to buy food and other necessities,” she said.

The Aquino administration canceled most of the Ro-Ro projects, saying that some of them were not unnecessary and were not in strategic locations.

When the Duterte administration came in 2010, it ordered a review of the projects to see which could be continued. 

In the remaining months of her term at the House, Arroyo said she would go on a "sentimental journey" to her favorite projects, which include the airports and Ro-Ro ports built during her administration.

“You know I’m going to leave public office on June 30 and I was telling my staff that I want to make a sentimental journey to my favorite projects and among them in the Bacolod- Silay airport and so I decided to come,” she said.

She added, “(f)rom Silay airport I will take a sentimental journey to the Ro-Ro because to me the Visayas the important infrastructure are the roads, airport and Ro-Ro,” Arroyo said. —LDF, GMA News