THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is scheduled to open on Tuesday a portion of the Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEx) C5 Link project.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark A. Villar announced the opening of the 2.2-kilometer segment after an inspection yesterday.

“Vehicular traffic spends about 1.5 hours just to cross from Villamor area in Pasay City to Taguig via Fort Bonifacio. On opening, this section will have three lanes on each direction and will enable about 8,000 vehicles to easily cross in half that time,” he said.

The segment forms part of the 7.7-kilometer C5 Link expressway which will connect Taguig to the cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite through CAVITEx.

The remaining sections of the P10-billion toll road — the 1.6-kilometer segment from E. Rodriguez to Merville Subdivision, the two-kilometer segment from Sucat to E. Rodriguez and 1.9-kilometer segment from Sucat Interchange to the R-1 Expressway — are scheduled to open before the term of President Rodrigo R. Duterte ends by June 2022.

“Mga first quarter of 2022 ’yung buong 7.7 [The whole 7.7-kilometer highway will be finished by the first quarter of 2022],” Roberto V. Bontia, president of the project’s concessionaire Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. (CIC), told reporters on Sunday.

“Ultimately, we foresee that the CAVITEx C5 Link Expressway will benefit about 50,000 vehicles daily… We intend to start construction of the next 2.1-kilometer section from Merville to Sucat, Las Piñas City by fourth quarter of this year,” he added.

Earlier, CIC applied for a toll fee at the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) for the CAVITEx C5 Link project. The rates are P22 for class 1 vehicles (ordinary cars), P44 for class 2 vehicles (buses and small trucks) and P66 for class 3 vehicles (large trucks and trailers).

CIC is under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). MPIC is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group. — Denise A. Valdez

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