EDSA Busway can still be improved

Advocates called on the government to improve transport facilities for persons with disabilities (PWDs) after an incident involving a PWD woman struggling to cross EDSA. 

Enforcers from the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) Special Action and Intelligence Committee for Transportation (SAICT) helped the woman by carrying her across EDSA near Ortigas Ave. after she got off a bus around 12:30 a.m. 

SAICT spokesman Jonathan Gesmundo acknowledged the lack of access to elevators and escalators at the EDSA-Ortigas busway station, which poses challenges for PWDs and seniors. 

While the SAICT personnel’s assistance was praised, PWD Philippines’ Arpee Lazaro said the need for more dignified solutions, suggesting that proper infrastructure such as ramps would prevent the need for physical assistance. 

Gesmundo said DOTr welcomes feedback and is considering improvements to facilities, including the possible privatization of the EDSA busway.

A foreign shipping firm has decided to throw its hat into the Philippine domestic shipping arena, which has been plagued for decades with the high cost of doing business, lack of economies of scale and poor port infrastructure. 

This is expected to lower the cost of domestic shipping which has higher than shipping from abroad. 

CNC, the intra-Asia short sea specialist of the CMA CGM Group, announced the launch of a new legal entity named CMA CGM Philippines Shipping, making it the first 100 percent foreign-owned international shipping line to register and operate a domestic service in the Philippines following the government’s expanded regulations permitting foreign shipping lines to venture into domestic shipping.