Duterte claims EDSA traffic now solved

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday night boasted that traffic congestion along EDSA has been eradicated.

"Ang traffic sa EDSA maluwang na," he said in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy over SMNI News.  "But early on sa administration ko, it was a crisis.

“So ang mga advise nila Tugade, ‘yung mga bright boys ko, sabi nila manghiram tayo ng pera. We can maybe adopt an MRT or somewhere paakyat. Pero basta we need money,” Duterte said.

(So Tugade, my bright boys, advised me to borrow money. Maybe we can build an MRT or somewhere going up. But we needed money.)

“Ito ngayon sa taas kita mo, ito na lang ang binuhos ko ‘yung mga grant-grant doon ko binuhos ‘yung pera. Ngayon, maluwag na ‘yung traffic ng Maynila. Talagang if you go to Cubao, airport, it’s about 15 minutes,” he added.

(So now, you can see this is where I poured all the money. Now the traffic in Manila is smooth. If you go to Cubao, airport, it’s about 15 minutes.)

THE completion of the entire 18-kilometer stretch of the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project, linking the northern and southern portion of Metro Manila, has decongested EDSA and reduced travel time within end points of the densely populated metropolis.

The project was approved in September 2013 under the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III, Duterte's predecessor.

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp., the private developer, announced the project completion in October 2020. It was officially opened in January 2021.

After its opening, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said the flow of vehicles along EDSA had become smooth.—LDF, GMA News