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INSTEAD OF SUSPENDING the rehabilitation of mega Manila’s major thoroughfare, the E. de los Santos Avenue (more known plainly as EDSA), why not adopt the hybrid work arrangement or four-day work week schedules for government offices and maybe public schools to reduce the volume of vehicles in this major road artery.
‘[T]he president is not scrapping the project completely but just asking officials to go back to the drawing board and find a smarter, less painful way to do it. New technologies, better planning, less chaos.’
A lot of countries have embraced the four-day work week schedule, so what makes us any different from them because government offices have the most number of vehicles operating within a week– particularly SUVs used by legislators, executive branch top officials, and those of the armed services and local government units.
That is if the government really wants to hit two birds with one stone: fewer vehicles from the four-day work week and at the same time not further delaying (the already long-delayed) major rehabilitation of EDSA.
REDUCED PRODUCTIVITY
As for private companies – which usually complain about reduced productivity due to long weekends and several holidays let us just leave it to their discretion. After all it is government offices (national and local) and public schools and public colleges and universities that cause huge traffic snarls in our roads.
The current state of EDSA is horrible and projects an image for the country of being backward in development.
Too many potholes, heavy floods during rains and from being a five or six lane road has shrunk to three or less lanes (with the bus carousel on the inner left and the bike/motorcycle lane on the right), which is why the influential people sporting usually SUVs are forced to use the EDSA Bus Carousel lane even if they have to pay fines of P5,000 or more just so they can breeze through EDSA).
TRAFFIC HELLSCAPE
The President ordered recently the pause in EDSA rehab so as not to sink Metro Manila into a “traffic hellscape for the next two years,” Bilyonaryo said.
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Marcos stepped in and ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways and Department of Transportation to temporarily stop the planned overhaul of Metro Manila’s busiest road, worried that pushing through would mean two straight years of unbearable traffic and economic pain. (Could it be that the pause is so as not to portray the country in a bad light in preparation for its hosting of the ASEAN summit in 2026).
“I told Secretary Vince Dizon (DOTr) and Secretary Manny Bonoan (DPWH), let’s hit pause on the EDSA rehab. When we look at the cost-benefit, sure—it sounds good. But the sacrifice is just too much,” Marcos said in a recent interview.
But the president is not scrapping the project completely but just asking officials to go back to the drawing board and find a smarter, less painful way to do it. New technologies, better planning, less chaos.
“We’ll find a better way—one that won’t be as difficult,” he added.
SLOW DOWN, REASSESS
Along with the rehab pause, the planned odd-even traffic scheme is also on hold, confirmed Secretary Dizon.
Senator JV Ejercito supported the President’s move, saying it’s the right call to slow down and reassess.
“Glad the President suspended the EDSA rehab! We need a proper economic benefit assessment before we move forward,” he posted on Facebook.
Ejercito pointed out that Metro Manila’s traffic nightmare already costs us more than ₱3.5 billion a day, and could balloon to ₱5.4 billion daily by 2035 if nothing changes. Still, he emphasized that rushing the wrong fix could make things worse.