Veterans hospital chosen as transport hub site

MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is settling on a portion of the Veterans Memorial Hospital and Golf Course in Quezon City as the final location for a mass transportation hub that will service northern Metro Manila.

But the department would first need to finalize negotiations with the Department of Defense, which has so far been “receptive,”  Transportation secretary Joseph Abaya told reporters in an interview last week.

Other locations considered previously included the Manila Seedling Bank along Edsa, also in Quezon City.

“Compared to other areas, I think this [Veterans location] is the best we can get,” Abaya said, referring to the part of the 55-hectare property of Veterans Memorial Hospital, which includes the main medical facility and an 18-hole golf course.

It is across from Ayala Land Inc.’s 29-hectare Vertis North mixed-use development in the North Triangle area of Quezon City.

Abaya said the DOTC  was eyeing a long-term lease of at least 25 years, extendable for another 25 years.

Also under review are regulatory issues including the zoning requirements for the new facility.

“We have to go to the QC government because its current zoning is [classified as] recreational. We have to carve out the zoning,” Abaya said, adding that the transport hub would require at least three hectares of land.

The facility, formally known as an Integrated Transportation System, or ITS, would be the last of three such projects being planned in Metro Manila.

The ITS system was designed to create intermodal hubs where provincial buses would disembark passengers to transfer to other in-city modes of transport such as Metro Rail Transit Line 3 or Light Rail Transit Line 1, city buses and UV Express vans. The move was also aimed at easing congestion within Metro Manila.

The DOTC has launched two other ITS projects under the Aquino administration’s public private partnership program.

These are the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest located near Manila-Cavite Expressway and the P4-billion ITS-South, near the Food Terminal Inc. compound in Taguig City.