JTTRI International Seminar on"Railway and Area Development in Manila"
Mr. Tugade’s speech
Thank you very much, Mr. Masafumi Shukuri, good morning sir. His
excellency the ambassador, the government of Japan, and the Republic of thePhilippines. My good friends, his excellency Mr. Koji Haneda, our new foundfriend from the ministry of land, transport, infrastructure and tourism, my friend,
Mr. Hikasa. To all of you good morning. Dr. Morichi, it is nice to see you again.
Our friends from JICA. Our friends from construction companies, from individual
projects, from the government, to all of you good morning.
You know, last December, I was in Hokkaido. I have a high-level meeting inHokkaido. And the Gentlemen from Japan Transport and Tourism ResearchInstitute, by the name of Mr. Yamashita made an appointment to see me inbetween a very hectic schedule I had in Hokkaido. I saw him there, Mr. Yamashita,and Mr. Yamashita said “I would like to request for your approval if you can makea written message for the forum, the seminar we will had in Manila, in February
next year. I said “message? no problem”. I will prepare the message for you. And
then he looked at me, and he said “can I make one more request?”. And I said
“what is your other request?”. “Can you speak during the forum?”. And I said
“yes, I am going to speak during the forum”. And I said, “is there anything else
you to take up” And he said “no more”. And I said “but you ask for one hour to seeme?, in five minutes you have achieved you purpose. You have additional 55minutes” And I said “since I have allotted one hour, why don’t you just treat mefor lunch, and then we can continue talking. And so we talked.
After that two days ago, I got information from the Japanese embassy, from Mr.
Hori, asking my staff whether I am going to show up today. And I said “what isthe hustle, I am going to show up today”. And so he has been calling my secretary,at least two times a day for the last two days, making sure that I will attend. Last
night, his excellency, the ambassador, was having a dinner with some of my friend
and one of the people attending the dinner texted me “Are you hesitant to join theforum tomorrow?”. I said “No, I am going to attend”. “But there is a Coronavirus”. And I said “I don’t give a shit about the Corona virus. I am going to attendthe forum”. And so I am here today after what I have committed with Mr.

Yamashita in December last year in Hokkaido. Maybe you will ask “why?”. I willtell you why.
Number 1, I am very very closed, with the Japanese people, with the Japanese
government, with the Japanese businesses. And I have been exposed to the way
they have doing things many years back. And for your information, for theJapanese, I used to be the president of Nippon Yusen Kaisha, I was still one. Orbrought back, Yusen Koku in the Philippines. I have been a president for almost
twenty years. I have been going to Japan, in and out, during those years.
And Dr. Morichi, I can tell you that I can order Japanese food without looking atthe menu. Maybe you will be surprised. My favorite food is Shirako. In themorning, I can eat even Ika-Mentaiko. Some Japanese do not like Natto, but I caneat Natto. I have been very closed with NYK. And I thought by coming here I canshow, and tell to the whole world, tell to the audience, that today I would like tosay “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Japanese Government”, for all of the help
you have been giving to the government of Philippines. For all of the trust you
have giving to President Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, and for all of thecooperation you have been extending to us, in joint project, jointly undertakenwith the Philippines government and Japanese government through JICA. Ithought by coming here today, I can show that my sincerity and our appreciation.
And I can say that we are grateful for your support and cooperation. Even if there
is Conora virus, I will be here to come to tell you straight, thank you Japanese
government for the help you are giving to Philippines government. And that is thereason why I am here.
I have remembered this thing very well. When we were giving the marchingorder, by Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, when we assumed the helm ship of theDepartment of Transportation. He said, “Art (Minister’s nickname), makeFilipino life’s comfortable. He said, “Art, enhance and improve mobility,connectivity and travel within the country. You have to do that”. And so this was avery simple mandate by the president, make Filipino life’s comfortable. That iseasier said than done. And so I met with my people which is including Junn
Magno, and including TJ Batan. And I said “the mandate of the president is tomake Filipino life’s comfortable, the mandate of the president is to put
connectivity and mobility. And I said this, after some thinking, we said “one of thebetter way to make Filipino’s life comfortable and one of the better way to have abetter connectivity is improving the rail system in the republic of Philippines,
your subject matter in today’s forum.
And so it was, we realize that the rail extension in the Philippines when weentered is only 77 kilometers. And so it is that we have planned, when it is time
for us to leave our administration into a partner with the department oftransportation, it is our expectation that that 77 kilometers will go as far as 1,900
kilometers. Maybe we will not finish it actually, but I assure you, we will put thefoundation of the rail section to become true.
Why trains? Because all of over the world, the mass transport system, theefficient transport system, is dedicated on rail. And so we said, “we have to doconnectivity”. And by the way, Mr. Koji Haneda, your excellency, sir, Dr. Morichi,
did you know that, once upon the time, our length of rail, was more than 2,000kilometers. During the commonwealth days. From the original of 2,000kilometers, during the commonwealth days, now reduced to 77 kilometers. When
all over the world, the government, states and cities will improve on the railway
system, in the Philippines, it was reduced from 2,000 to 77 kilometers. And now
we would like to bring it back to the original level of more than 1,000 kilometers.
And you, the Japanese government, Japanese business, the professors, theoperation and institution are greatly helping us. I come today to say “Salamat Po,Domo Arigatou” for all of the help you have giving us.
Why this is so, let me show you the example. Many of the Filipino audience
here, are aware of MRT3. MRT3, right now is a headache fuss. And so we aredoing the rail rehabilitation. Before when we were assumed, almost every day,every day, there will be problem in MRT3. And people will be cursing us. And
saying “what the heck, what are we doing”. But that is the reality which we haveinherited. Now, we are trying to address the situation, with Japanese business,Sumitomo. And so hopefully we can finish this within 38 months. From what it isright now, of 30 km/h speed, after next year, we hope to achieve 60 km/h. Now
with the headway of 7 minutes, sometimes 8, we are ready to do it in 3 minutes.
This is the very fast, and the very clear example of mobility. Whereas today,people will be transported 180,000-200,000 person per day. When thismodernization program of MRT3 will be completed, we will be moving daily
600,000 people per day. That is mobility. That is railway system. It is not easy todo this, but we are going to do this. Because we believe, and we are on the opinion
that if we are going to have connectivity and mobility, we are going to have aworthwhile railway transport system. And that is what we are going to do. And
that is what is your subject matter today.
Earlier, I was asked “What is happening with the railway system from Tutuban,
going to Clark. If I tell you now, as I speak, if you are going to the place called
Malolos, Bulacan, you will see and entire place there. Where you will see hugeconstruction. Why, because we want to finish, at least make it partially operable
during the term of the president. You will see a massive expansion construction
program. There are no less than 3,000 workers there now. We will do that. Andagain, that is in partnership with Japanese business, that is in partnership withJICA, that is in partnership with Japanese government.
We are going to do all this. And what we are doing, in order to be able to do all
this, there are four concepts which I would like to share with you today. The first
concept, whereas before, the construction will take only one shift, at most one anda half shift. Do you know what construction project is including? The railway
project construction is 24-7. So that we first tract the movement, so that we canmonitor the movement, 24-7. In addition to this, we have introduced the conceptof partial operability. Whereas before in many project, before it is become
operational, it must be full and completed. I said, putting up the railway will nottake full and complete, 3 or even 4 years, depending on the lack. And I said, why
don’t we have partial operability? Meaning if we can finish 2 or 3 stations, let theFilipino people experience the railway. We don’t have to wait until 24 stations forthe people to experience it so we introduce partial operability. This is the concept
which I have used during the term of President Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte. It theclose coordination, within Japanese government and the Philippine government,between JICA and Department of Transportation. So close that we will meet 6o’clock in the morning, so close even we can meet in the weekend, so close that
ministers of Japan and ministers of the Philippines at least every two months willmeet together and final, where we are going to strengthen the collaboration andthe support. That is why it is moving fast. And that is why, whereas before, theJapanese budget in the Philippines, was characterized to be slow and sure. During
our time, Japanese budget is now characterized as fast and sure. And so it is.

And then we introduce and push the concept of land value capture. Whereas
before the people will analyze the benefits and the return of the railway based on
the fare and tariff and I said, no that is not fair, you have to equalize and see foryourself, what we call “land value capture”. I understand that there will be thetopic here and I congratulate you for having that. I hope more Filipino engineer
can come and attend the topic and see and hear for themselves what is themeaning of land value capture which is the concept which we are pushing in ourefforts in putting the value of transport needs in this country. Land value capture.
The other one is education. The other one is training. Training and education.
So that why we are worry on how to put infrastructure, so why we are worry in
how to operate the infrastructure. We said, we have to put up the aspect ofeducation and training. And so we have organized and established, and thepresident of the institute and the executives are all here, of the Philippine RailwayInstitute. Let me tell you this, the Philippine Railway Institute is partnered withTokyo Metro, and we are working very closely with them. Because I honestly
believe that if there is no formal education in the operation of the railway, it is justa matter of time that operation will failed. I want to have the efficiency to continue,
and therefore I said, there must be an education. And therefore, we have put up
with the executives and the president he said we will have Philippine Railway
Institute. Again, speaking of Philippine Railway Institute, we will finish this inless than two years. We will be putting up simulators, and the simulator is donatedby Japanese government through the efforts of JICA. And this is not the very
cheap thing. And we are getting all of this support. So whatever we are doing now,we are closing to it, what we call education and training.
I was informed by the organizer that I will speak only 5 minutes. How many
minutes I have spoken? Can I speak for one more hour? No, they said no. There
are many speakers which I want to interact with you. But let me put to four of mymessage here. Number 1, we will realize the railway system, and we will realize itwith the partnership of the government of Japan. We will achieve it, with Japanesebusiness, like all of Japanese businesses and companies are helping us, using theirtechnology and education like the government of Japan. We will realize that.
Number 2, we appreciate and would like to express our appreciation to Japanese
government, ambassador Haneda, sir. To the effort and cooperation of theMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, sir, Mr. Hikasa, thankyou very much. To all of you, I would like to thank you.
The president wants to have a golden age of infrastructure. He said “let my term
be the golden age of infrastructure”. And so it shall be. You guys, all of you whoare here, are helping us realize the golden age of infrastructure. Today I come, toask you “don’t get tired of supporting us”. Maybe now this is the opportunity that
I ask JICA, “Sir, can you reduce the interest charge for us?, maybe you cancontinue helping us by reducing the interest. Did you say “yes”, sir?”. But please
don’t kept tired of supporting us. We appreciate you help.
Today is a very beautiful day. It is very beautiful because we have a project likethis. The project which is sponsored by Japan Transport and Tourism ResearchInstitute. It is a very beautiful day because we are going to talk about the railway
system, a beautiful topic. It is a beautiful day, because you all, guys, ladies andgentlemen, all those attendances, you are making this day a very beautiful day. To
all of you, a happy and a beautiful day. Good morning.
Doumo Arigatou.