Restore funding for Edsa busway

The Edsa busway is one of the casualties of the cuts made to the Department of Transportation's (DOTr) proposed budget for next year—getting zero allocation. The busway, also known as the Edsa carousel, operates on a dedicated inner median bus lane along Edsa. It carries a daily ridership of more than 180,000 and has served 341 million passengers since it opened in June 2020. This only shows how crucial the 28-kilometer busway has become in moving commuters in Metro Manila, notorious for its traffic gridlock. The DOTr stated last year that the busway 'continues to be one of the most efficient public road transport systems' in the metro. Per the agency's data, it reached a single-day peak of 321,186 passengers in April 2025 and posted 6.53 million ridership alone in December last year during the busy holiday season. The busway currently has 23 northbound stops and 24 southbound stops connecting Monumento in the north to Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) in the south. The busway stops include the one in Kamuning, whose renovation cost P87.3 million, along with the replacement of the infamous steep footbridge nearby—known as Mount Kamuning—with a modernized overpass. President Marcos even led the inspection of the new station last March and praised the undertaking, noting that improvements like this can be done after all. 'It's not that difficult, as long as we are determined to improve the commuting experience,' he said. 'Commuting is already difficult, considering the long lines and the heat … We should really address what our fellow citizens go through every day just to get to work and get back home.' The President vowed to address the infrastructure problems, including the proper maintenance of new facilities. But those words now sound hollow with his administration's decision to defund the Edsa busway. Last May, DOTr sought an increase in the busway's budget to P1.32 billion from this year's P88.71 million to sustain its expansion and maintenance and support the process of unifying the design and engineering of each station. The DOTr already started last year the P247.59-million rehabilitation of the Monumento, Bagong Barrio, North Avenue, and Guadalupe busway stations. It also recently issued a P264.86-million contract to develop new stations located in Cubao, Magallanes, and PITX. Its budget for next year would have been used to rehabilitate the remaining stations amid a projected increase in the busway's passenger traffic. According to the DOTr, annual ridership went up by 5.89 percent to 66.67 million last year from 63.02 million in 2024. The agency is projecting the number to increase to 70 million passengers this year. At the DOTr's budget hearing this week, Senior Undersecretary Mark Steven Pastor said the maintenance and operations of the busway system could suffer from the budget cut. This would compromise the security of passengers, as the salaries and contracts of the Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation and security services are under the project management office. Rehabilitation of 12 more busway stations next year, estimated to cost P1.7 billion, will also be affected. The Move As One Coalition said the zero funding was not consistent with the Marcos administration's transport goals and the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028. 'A supermajority—94 percent—of Filipinos do not own cars … Why are their mobility needs not reflected in the proposed National Expenditure Program 2027?' the coalition said in a statement. Several lawmakers have also called for the restoration of the busway's budget, with Akbayan party list Rep. Percival Cendaña saying that 'The thousands of commuters who rely on public transportation must be prioritized.' The government planned to privatize the busway by end of last year. But based on statements from the DOTr as of May this year, the decision on whether to privatize was still pending, and no proposals have been put forward so far. The government also intended to complete the rehabilitation of the stations before turning operations over to a private firm. So why abandon a vital service and leave it without funding at this time? This is tantamount to abandoning the hundreds of thousands of commuters who rely on the busway and is a reflection of the government's utter disregard for their welfare. While the Marcos administration's ambitious P197.3 billion budget for the country's rail transport program in 2027 is a significant milestone, a railway cannot serve the needs of commuters alone and must be complemented by other modes of transport. This means that the government must also invest in road public transit such as the Edsa busway to provide commuters with more options in a truly integrated transit network. Otherwise, the country's transport system will remain broken and fragmented—and a daily nightmare for commuters—the way it is today.