A member of my city hall staff shared with me a Facebook post from one of Antipolo City’s most distinguished pioneer residents – Mr. Frank Padilla, an international Catholic lay spiritual leader and the son of the revered Filipino lawmaker, Senator Ambrosio Padilla.
The Padillas were among the first “Antipoleños-by-choice” who opted to make the city their home. Even before there was a concrete four-lane Sumulong Highway connecting the city proper at the summit to Marikina Valley, the Padillas had already built a residential haven which people have long referred to as “Alpadi.”
“Alpadi” has one of the best locations on the road leading up to Antipolo proper. It was built on a site many call the “overlooking” – a term used by many generations to describe the breathtaking view of Metro Manila and environs one gets to appreciate when one stands are that part of Sumulong Highway.
Recent rapid modernization and the phenomenon of the urban sprawl may have taken away from Alpadi the tranquility that it used to enjoy.
From the 50s to the late 80s, Alpadi had few neighbors. There was the imposing white building which once housed the Redemptorist Minor Seminary. There was the Nipa Hut, the rest-house of the Lopez Family. There once was Sarmiento Farms which was then one of the country’s biggest poultry and livestock plants.
Other than those early “settlers” the stretch where Alpadi sits was nothing more than a deserted road in the evening where hardly any vehicle passed.
Things have changed.
Frank Padilla and the many others who made Rizal and Antipolo home are experiencing the byproducts of the rapid change.
In his Facebook post, Frank said, “2 hours & 15 minutes from Antipolo to Greenmeadows. 20 minutes going back.”
Frank must have left Alpadi during the morning rush and returned during the part of the day when the whole-day number coding rule was in effect in the areas along his route that are within the jurisdiction of Metro Manila.
Frank’s experience and woes are not unique. They are shared by the many other daily commuters and motorists who traverse the two major routes to the areas east of Metro Manila: Marcos Highway and Ortigas Avenue Extension. The trip to and from these areas become even more difficult when there is a heavy afternoon downfall and at the onset of the Christmas season.
There’s hope.
Part of the reason for the rather heavy vehicular traffic along Marcos Highway is the ongoing construction of the extension of LRT Line 2. Just in case we may have forgotten, that project is expected to be completed by 2019 – barring any major glitch.
Once that project is completed, the LRT Line 2 will have an additional capacity of some 75,000 passengers per day, or a total capacity of 315,000 passengers per day from the current capacity of 240,000.
The trains will run from Masinag in Antipolo. If plans are carried out based on original intent, the other end of the line will also be extended from CM Recto to Pier 4 in the City of Manila.
We can also hope that with the completion of the project in 2019, Marcos Highway will be free from major construction activities. We can also hope that there will be fewer cars as more residents of Rizal and Antipolo may opt to leave their private vehicles behind and use the extended light rail transport system instead.
By the way, the traffic situation along Ortigas extension worsened starting last month because of the road improvement being done by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) right in front of SM Ortigas East. DPWH said it would be completed come October.
Second, the real C6 hasn’t been bidded out but it will be soon. People got used to calling the road dike (by Laguna Lake) connecting Taguig to Taytay C6, but in reality, the real C6 is yet to be constructed.
For commuters and motorists using the Ortigas Avenue Extension route on their way to Makati and the areas south of Metro Manila, the completion of two major roads should provide a breather. The first is the road dike that connects Taytay to Taguig City. This is what many have been used to calling the C-6 Road. The fact is the real C-6 construction project is yet to take off. That would further ease up traffic when it becomes a reality.
The other one are the two other planned road dikes that will run on the shorelines of Laguna de bay. One is the Laguna Lake Expressway Dike (LLED) Project and the other, the Rizal Eastlake Development (RED) Project.
The expansion of options for commuters and motorists may not be sufficient to solve the jam in our roadways. We hope that two other things come about: greater road discipline and patience among all road users.
The expansion of roadways and route options follow the law of physics: there is going to be an opposite reaction. As the options expand, so will the population. The improving means of transportation will merely serve as an encouragement for more people to build their homes in areas farther from the center of the metropolis.
We foresee that as these options expand and as the light rail transit system expansion is completed, more families will choose to reside in the towns of Rizal that lie along the backdoor route towards Laguna.
We miss the days when going up and down Antipolo along Sumulong Highway was a breeze.
That’s probably how life is. Populations grow. Spaces become smaller. We will have to learn to share that ever-contracting space with one another.
*For feedback, please email it to antipolocitygov@gmail.com or send it to #4 Horse Shoe Drive, Beverly Hills Subdivision, Bgy. Beverly Hills, Antipolo City, Rizal.
The Padillas were among the first “Antipoleños-by-choice” who opted to make the city their home. Even before there was a concrete four-lane Sumulong Highway connecting the city proper at the summit to Marikina Valley, the Padillas had already built a residential haven which people have long referred to as “Alpadi.”
“Alpadi” has one of the best locations on the road leading up to Antipolo proper. It was built on a site many call the “overlooking” – a term used by many generations to describe the breathtaking view of Metro Manila and environs one gets to appreciate when one stands are that part of Sumulong Highway.
Recent rapid modernization and the phenomenon of the urban sprawl may have taken away from Alpadi the tranquility that it used to enjoy.
From the 50s to the late 80s, Alpadi had few neighbors. There was the imposing white building which once housed the Redemptorist Minor Seminary. There was the Nipa Hut, the rest-house of the Lopez Family. There once was Sarmiento Farms which was then one of the country’s biggest poultry and livestock plants.
Other than those early “settlers” the stretch where Alpadi sits was nothing more than a deserted road in the evening where hardly any vehicle passed.
Things have changed.
Frank Padilla and the many others who made Rizal and Antipolo home are experiencing the byproducts of the rapid change.
In his Facebook post, Frank said, “2 hours & 15 minutes from Antipolo to Greenmeadows. 20 minutes going back.”
Frank must have left Alpadi during the morning rush and returned during the part of the day when the whole-day number coding rule was in effect in the areas along his route that are within the jurisdiction of Metro Manila.
Frank’s experience and woes are not unique. They are shared by the many other daily commuters and motorists who traverse the two major routes to the areas east of Metro Manila: Marcos Highway and Ortigas Avenue Extension. The trip to and from these areas become even more difficult when there is a heavy afternoon downfall and at the onset of the Christmas season.
There’s hope.
Part of the reason for the rather heavy vehicular traffic along Marcos Highway is the ongoing construction of the extension of LRT Line 2. Just in case we may have forgotten, that project is expected to be completed by 2019 – barring any major glitch.
Once that project is completed, the LRT Line 2 will have an additional capacity of some 75,000 passengers per day, or a total capacity of 315,000 passengers per day from the current capacity of 240,000.
The trains will run from Masinag in Antipolo. If plans are carried out based on original intent, the other end of the line will also be extended from CM Recto to Pier 4 in the City of Manila.
We can also hope that with the completion of the project in 2019, Marcos Highway will be free from major construction activities. We can also hope that there will be fewer cars as more residents of Rizal and Antipolo may opt to leave their private vehicles behind and use the extended light rail transport system instead.
By the way, the traffic situation along Ortigas extension worsened starting last month because of the road improvement being done by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) right in front of SM Ortigas East. DPWH said it would be completed come October.
Second, the real C6 hasn’t been bidded out but it will be soon. People got used to calling the road dike (by Laguna Lake) connecting Taguig to Taytay C6, but in reality, the real C6 is yet to be constructed.
For commuters and motorists using the Ortigas Avenue Extension route on their way to Makati and the areas south of Metro Manila, the completion of two major roads should provide a breather. The first is the road dike that connects Taytay to Taguig City. This is what many have been used to calling the C-6 Road. The fact is the real C-6 construction project is yet to take off. That would further ease up traffic when it becomes a reality.
The other one are the two other planned road dikes that will run on the shorelines of Laguna de bay. One is the Laguna Lake Expressway Dike (LLED) Project and the other, the Rizal Eastlake Development (RED) Project.
The expansion of options for commuters and motorists may not be sufficient to solve the jam in our roadways. We hope that two other things come about: greater road discipline and patience among all road users.
The expansion of roadways and route options follow the law of physics: there is going to be an opposite reaction. As the options expand, so will the population. The improving means of transportation will merely serve as an encouragement for more people to build their homes in areas farther from the center of the metropolis.
We foresee that as these options expand and as the light rail transit system expansion is completed, more families will choose to reside in the towns of Rizal that lie along the backdoor route towards Laguna.
We miss the days when going up and down Antipolo along Sumulong Highway was a breeze.
That’s probably how life is. Populations grow. Spaces become smaller. We will have to learn to share that ever-contracting space with one another.
*For feedback, please email it to antipolocitygov@gmail.com or send it to #4 Horse Shoe Drive, Beverly Hills Subdivision, Bgy. Beverly Hills, Antipolo City, Rizal.
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