(Published in ENRICH magazine, 2023)
MUCH LIKE THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN Pharaohs
of the Old Kingdom that built the Pyramids, Philippine presidents since the
Commonwealth have turned to building infrastructure to cement their political
legacies in the consciousness of their countrymen.
In this sense, the costly and oftentimes
contentious roads, buildings, bridges, seaports, airports and other public
works built by seven Philippine presidents from Manuel L. Quezon to Ferdinand
E. Marcos can be regarded as ostentatious memorials intent on proclaiming the
greatness of the men -- the Philippine Pharaohs -- that built them.
Thus, the epitaph to Quezon's infrastructure
spree might read: "In honor of Pres. Manuel L. Quezon, the greatest
builder of roads in Philippine history before the advent of the Republic, and
builder of the North-South Circumferential Road, now known as Epifanio de los
Santos Avenue".
The inscription to Pres. Carlos Garcia's
infrastructure program might declare: "Let it be known that the
Pan-Philippine Highway -- the largest road building project in Philippine
history -- was planned in 1961 during the administration of Pres. Carlos P.
Garcia".
That of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos might
proclaim: "Recall that the administration of Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos
built more concrete roads than any other administration from 1900 to 1965".
It might be useful to know what claims to
infrastructure greatness were made by past presidents who served from 1935 to
1986 under the Commonwealth and the Philippine Constitution of 1935 (as amended),
when much of the infrastructure we still use today came into existence.
Quezon, the greatest infrastructure
builder
Before the Commonwealth came into being
on November 15, 1935, the colonial road systems bequeathed it by both the
Spaniard colonizers (1521 to 1898) and American colonizers (1898 to 1946) can
be rightly termed as primitive and completely inadequate.
Even by 1935, most “roads” in the
Philippines were narrow dirt paths only wide enough to accommodate two
carabao-drawn carts traveling in opposite directions. Manila and a few other
cities had asphalted or macadam roads built by the Americans. There were only
97.5 km of concrete roads in the entire country in 1935.
The few gravel paved roads in existence
connected municipalities and cities. Better roads were paved with boulders,
adobe blocks and gravel. Good roads to the provinces and within the provinces
were practically non-existent.
William Howard Taft, U.S. Governor
General of the Philippines from 1901 to 1903, remarked that "in no way
were the Islands so backwards as in their lack of communication in the interior
regions."
The Americans, who acquired the
Philippines from Spain in 1898, reported only 1,450 km of the Spanish road
system remained usable in the first decade of the 20th century. Practically the
entire road system was built on the island of Luzon, which had the Walled City
of Intramuros in Manila as its centerpiece of government. The Commonwealth was
forced to upgrade the Philippines' primitive road net due to the increasing
number of automobiles and other motor vehicles, which were driving commerce and
economic growth.
The first motor vehicles (these from the
United States) reached Philippine shores in 1910. Registration of motor
vehicles began two years later.
In 1936, the Commonwealth reported the
registration of 3,067 motor vehicles, up 17% from 1935. The total number of
registered motor vehicles in 1936 consisted of 28,420 cars, 17,355 trucks and
buses and 518 motorcycles. Out of this total, 14,213 cars, 5,017 trucks and 320
motorcycles were located in the capital city, Manila.
As for roads, the Department of Public
Works and Communications reported gravel surface roads (or second class roads)
comprised 80% of all national and provincial roads. It also said half of all
gravel surface roads were only four meters wide. These were the roads, originally
built for animal-drawn farm carts, which motor vehicles had to contend with.
When it bowed out of existence on July 4,
1946, the Commonwealth had attained eternal fame as the greatest builder of
roads in Philippine history up until that time. It constructed practically all
of the 26,000 km of national and provincial roads that came into existence from
1900 to 1950. It also made the largest investments in Philippine road building
over that same 50 year period.
The Commonwealth’s intense zeal for road
building was driven by Quezon, who strongly believed in the immense value of
roads in boosting national economic progress. In his speech before the National
Assembly on Feb. 1, 1938, Quezon said the Commonwealth's road building and
public works programs were meant to give life to his belief that "adequate
transportation facilities and other public works were necessary for the existence
of a strong national life".
The following year saw the Commonwealth
release PhP54.1 million for road and bridge construction, the largest sum
allocated to these tasks before the Second World War. This amount was
equivalent to 40% of all government appropriations for highway building from
1901 to 1941.
Among the most invaluable of Quezon's
infrastructure projects was the North-South Circumferential Road (NSCR). This
modern highway was widely called Highway 54 by Filipinos at the time before
finally being officially renamed Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in a law passed
by Congress in 1959.
“To facilitate the expansion of the City
of Manila, in accordance with approved development plans, to provide more ready
access to the suburbs and to permit the acquisition and development of parks
contiguous thereto, an appropriation of P1,500,000 is recommended for the
construction of a circumferential road around the City of Manila from the south
end of the Taft Avenue Extension to the Balintawak Monument, via Welfareville,
Camp Murphy, and San Francisco del Monte,” said Quezon in a speech about the
NSCR before the National Assembly.
NSCR was to be the main road from Manila
to Balintawak City, the new
metropolis Quezon planned as the country's magnificent new capital city to
replace Manila and center of the national government. This new city to be
hacked out of forests to the north and northeast of Manila was also intended to
become the most beautiful city in the Philippines.
Balintawak City "… politically shall
be the seat of the national government; aesthetically the showplace of the
nation -- a place that thousands of people will come and visit as the epitome
of culture and spirit of the country; socially, a dignified concentration of
human life, aspirations and endeavors and achievements; and economically, as a
productive, self-contained community," according to Quezon.
The National Assembly, however, renamed
Balintawak City as Quezon City over Quezon's strong objections. Quezon City was
born on October 12, 1939 by virtue of Commonwealth Act 572.
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| Pres. Manuel L. Quezon |
Roxas and rebuilding
The Republic of the Philippines came into
existence on July 4, 1946, only nine months after the end of the Pacific War.
Manuel A. Roxas, the republic's first president, had no recourse but to embark
on a policy of national reconstruction with the help of the United States to
rebuild the shattered economy. The U.S. initially set aside $136.9 million for
rehabilitation.
His almost two-year stint as president
saw Roxas concentrate on rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by the war. In his
First State of the Nation Address on June 3, 1946, Roxas reported Philippine
roads “are a shambles ... Bridges and roads are in crying need of
reconstruction. The nation’s transportation facilities, as you all know, have
been completely disrupted”.
During his term that lasted until April
15, 1948 when he died of a heart attack, Roxas also had to contend with the
massive graft and corruption arising out of war reparations, criminal gangs and
brigands, and a Communist insurgency that became a full-fledged rebellion by
the communist Huks a few months after he took office. All of these slowed the
pace of infrastructure reconstruction and rebuilding.
Quirino continues reconstruction
Pres. Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953)
continued Roxas' reconstruction of public works but also built new roads and
bridges. Quirino reported the construction of 663 km of new roads during his
First State of the Nation Address on January 24, 1949. The following year saw
him commit Filipino soldiers to fight in defense of South Korea in the Korean
War that lasted from 1950 to 1953, or his entire tenure in office.
In his final State of the Nation Address
in 1953, Quirino pointed out "Nearly 29,000 kilometers of roads and over
9,000 bridges are now being maintained and kept open to motor vehicle traffic.
We have exerted every effort this past year to maintain and add to our system
of highways and bridges and of other means of communications".
Magsaysay and farmer roads
"The Guy," a popular nickname
for Pres. Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957), who was Quirino’s successor, embarked on
a program aimed at building concrete roads that would help farmers more easily
transport their produce to municipal and city markets. This farm –to-market
program was part of Magsaysay's five-year highway-building binge implemented by
the Bureau of Public Works.
The year 1954 saw completion of the
upgraded Highway 54. The new highway was a four-lane asphalted roadway from
Balintawak in Quezon City to the highway's intersection with what is now the
South Luzon Expressway.
Garcia's Pan-Philippine Highway
Pres. Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961)
boasted that during his administration, "The age of cement roads has come
to the Philippines." He also said the use of cement instead of asphalt to
build roads "will be far more economical in the long run”.
His first State of the Nation address saw
Garcia promise to cement all national highways, including EDSA, and set aside
PhP35 million in appropriations to begin this project in 1962.
Garcia wanted the main roads traversing
agricultural and industrial areas (with a total length of 15,000 km) paved with
cement to reduce the expensive cost of maintenance. Garcia’s final year in
office also saw planning begin in 1961 for the largest road building project in
Philippine history: the Pan-Philippine Highway.
Garcia's Pan-Philippine Highway was to
begin at Aparri, Cagayan and wind-up in Davao City, a distance of more than
2,000 km. The Department of Public Works boasted it would complete this mammoth
project in only five years, a target it failed to attain.
Highway 54 was renamed Epifanio de los
Santos Avenue (EDSA) on April 7, 1959 by virtue of Republic Act No. 2140.
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| Pan Philippine Highway |
Cong Dadong’s roads
Pres. Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965)
focused heavily on road building since he reverted the Philippines back to a
free enterprise economy.
During his final year in office,
Macapagal reported the construction and improvement from 1962 to 1964 of 7,633
km of national, provincial, city and municipal roads at a total cost of P107.9
million. His administration also built and improved 3,500 linear meters of
bridges at an expenditure of P22.6 million.
Macapagal also wholeheartedly supported
the Pan-Philippine Highway, which was re-scheduled for completion in 1969, or
four years after he left office.
The concreting of EDSA began during
Macapagal's presidency and the highway’s last extensions were built in 1965. In
the process, the northbound lane was extended from Balintawak to the Bonifacio
Monument at Caloocan City. The southbound lane was extended from Taft Avenue to
Roxas Boulevard.
Marcos' infrastructure frenzy
It's not well known the many road
building projects undertaken by Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965-1986)
concentrated on building and rehabilitating roads connecting the provinces
since there were no more big ticket projects such as the Pan-Philippine Highway
in the pipeline.
Marcos' road building spree had the aim
of boosting local economic growth. He also saw the Pan-Philippine Highway and
other major road networks as one national road network.
Like Quezon before him, Marcos considered
roads as guarantors of economic growth. Marcos outspent even Quezon in his zeal
for road-building. His administration’s infrastructure investments accounted
for 6% of our gross domestic product (GDP), the highest among all Philippine
presidents.
This allowed Marcos to boast in his
Fourth State of the Nation address in Jan. 1969 his administration had “built
more concrete roads than were ever built from the turn of the century to 1965”.
He said “from the start of the American
regime to the end of the past administration, the government built only 995
kilometers of concrete roads, 7,268 kilometers of asphalt roads, 39,075
kilometers of feeder roads, and 76,693 lineal meters of permanent national
bridges”.
“In the three years of the present
administration, we increased the total length of concrete roads by 105%; that
of asphalt by 20%; that of feeder roads by 15%; and that of permanent national
bridges by 17%".
By 1980, or eight years into Martial Law,
Marcos was able to assert that “infrastructure, which is the basis of our
economic planning, shows a quantum leap … Today a system of 129,186 kilometers
of highways and access roads joins our remotest barrios to the centers of
commerce and population. The entire system can now be said to be linked from
the north to the south, island to island”.
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| EDSA in the 1970s |
