Renaming of the NLEX to Cory Aquino Expressway: Adding insult to national injury

Yesterday’s world-changing breaking news was that Philippine Congress gave the green light to renaming the North Luzon Exrpessway (NLEX) the “President Corazon C. Aquino Expressway” (CAEX)…

“If favorably passed into law, it will constantly remind us of the noble deeds of the late President especially for the poor, and inspire our people to emulate her example of selfless service to the nation while her exceptional courage and leadership gave hope and united the Filipino people at a critical time in the country’s history,” said Nueva Ecija Rep. Magnolia Rosa Antonino.

north_luzon_expressway

It is interesting to note that The NLEX underwent a massive 385 million dollar rehabilitation under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through a public–private partnership (PPP) with the Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC). Part of the funding included 70 million dollars in loans from the Asian Development Bank. The ADB noted the success of the project in a report it issued in 2011 where it hailed the project as “a benchmark project for the toll road sector” which has “paved the way for further private sector participation.”

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The ADB report further elaborates…

NLEX was the first expressway to be rehabilitated, operated, and maintained by a private company, with international partners, and in accordance with accepted international practice. The project has served as a model for others. Facilities and standards of NLEX are now on a par with expressways in other countries, including those in Europe and elsewhere in Asia. The design standards, facilities, financial structuring, and concession agreement serve as benchmarks for the other toll road projects in the Philippines.

Much of this work had happened under Arroyo’s watch. But unlike the current president, BS Aquino who often ends up with a foot in his mouth after most public addresses, Arroyo is a lot more circumspect with regard to her role in this and other success stories during her rule as she relates in her famous essay, It’s the economy student!

No need to rename roads and airports: Lee Kuan Yew's legacy is Singapore itself.

No need to rename roads and airports: Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy is Singapore itself.

Compare the sort of presumptuous pomposity on exhibit in the Philippines with the humble wishes of Singapore’s Elder Statesman Lee Kuan Yew who instructed the executors of his estate to have his home at 38 Oxley Road where he lived and raised his kids the whole time he ruled Singapore until his death “torn down upon his passing”.

On the matter of the sentiment surrounding a need to preserve LKY’s memory, PAP MP Alex Yam had this to say…

His legacy lies beyond the confines of 38, Oxley Road.

We find it in the streets of a peaceful, stable and united Singapore. His memory will be better served in our collective efforts to carry Singapore forward to the next 50 years”.

Indeed, one only needs to look around and up and down while standing on any Singapore street to appreciate LKY’s grand lifetime achievement. In the Philippines, on the other hand, there are only plenty names to “remind” people of supposedly “great” people. But tangible evidence of greatness in the society itself remains tragically thin after almost a century of “independence”.

[Photo of Bocaue Exit courtesy PampangaTalents.com.]

53 Replies to “Renaming of the NLEX to Cory Aquino Expressway: Adding insult to national injury”

  1. They really want themselves installed as some Royal family. The reality is the current president best suited for court jester or town idiot.

  2. it is a curious matter as to WHY LKY wanted his home ton down. WHY? the naming of streets ,bldgs.,arena’s and other public spaces is a common enough occurence in many countries but the Philippines tends to over do it. A corporate sponsor that has to pay to have its name on the road every year would generat money to fund other projects. BUT those other projects would probably be a politicians olympic sized swimming pool and some cars for his family. So better to, uh…NOT !
    BTW, I have been to Singapore and it is OK, nothing to marvel at and the way cops issue tickets to people for just about anything and everything is bordering on authoritarianism. BUT the Philippines is a festering shit hole by comparison.Looking at Manila and Singapore and there really is no comparison except to say that the ‘Pearl-of-the-Orient’ needs a facelift,transplant and ,WTF, complete overhaul/rebirth…its a Fuckin mess.(NAIA Terminal 3 is a decent airport though.).The Philippines could have done so much more with what it had after WW2, but it has all been stolen and what is left has been corrupted.YUCK !

  3. Geez. They still push through with this. If not the highlight of the public servants services involved putting another public servant to jail or defending them from graft and corruption charges, it is a joke proposal such as naming a road next to a clueless President. No wonder there’s less focus on the national interest. What a waste of so much time and tax paid salary to these lawmakers. Our government is more on self-service than public service!

  4. Since I am still in my 20s I asked my relatives if Cory had anything to do with NLEX, and the answer is none. Marcos was the brainchild of the NLEX or most infrastructures. And are they still using the same kind of infrastructure 30 years later?

    Back to the post, WHO’s bright idea is this?!?
    Let us not forget the same stunt was pulled when you want to change EDSA named after a famous Filipino Historian to Cory Aquino Avenue.

    I can understand naming a place to someone who had contributed significantly; like Bluementritt, Rizal, Quezon and Epifanio de Los Santos but CORY? No I don’t even think she qualifies to be immortalized like that!

    Sorry I just had to get it off my chest. Is this what our government spend our tax money for? Is there still something relevant our government can do instead of being a well organized syndicate who barely help our country instead of themselves and their cronies?

    1. Dadong Macapagal (GMA’s father) was the one who started NLEX (North Diversion Rd). It was even during his term that the famous San Juanico Bridge was first thought up. The road from Caloocan to Bulacan were the ones first built. Unfortunately due to lack of funds, they only stopped at Bulacan. Marcos just continued extending it through borrowed funding when he became prez.

    2. Tanggalin si Rizal sa Luneta at ipalit si DA king na laging maka masa sa mga pelikula at laging bida
      Pag si Grace Poe ang magiging presidente,syempre!

    3. yeah…the more daw na ipinagbubunyi ang pangalan ni cory aquino ng mga tao at isinisigaw the more daw na nahihirapan yan sa impiyerno.. kaya sigaw pa more ang pangalang CORY AQUINO…masyadong makasalan yan at daming pinapatay na tao…kaya siguradong nagdudusa ang kaluluwa niyan sa impiyerno…credit grabber at mapanira.. lahat ay gustong kunin ng di nila pag aari..

  5. It would have made sense to name the expressway after Cory if she had been runover and died on it. In she same tradition that NAIA was named after her husband because he got shot in it.

    1. To make this more public,dig the grave of Cory,lay her down to NLEX. call a bulldozer and let it run many many times untill the corpse totally flat to the hi-way, now they can rename it to the clan.They can also rename NAIA to Abnoy,same technique, before a plane touch down,trow that idiot on one of the jet engine and his body parts spread along the tarmac and then it is now officially with a new name ABNOY

  6. Renaming NLEX to another Aquino is like inviting another curse in the making, look what happened to MIA when they named it to Ninoy. Completely deteriorated for a decades and they still trying to put make up on but the smell of pagkabulok is all over the place.

  7. The Aquinos are Credit Grabbers. They did not do anything good during their terms; but to demonize their political enemies; grab the Credit of their works; and made themselves heroes and saints.

    Corazon Aquino had no leadership. She had nothing to do with the poor. Her hacienda Luisita workers are paid an equivalent of ten (10) U.S. cents an hour. Corazon Aquino improved the lives of her fellow Oligarchs. And, installed back and continued the Feudalism in our country. This is to protect her Hacienda Luisita; which it continues to be protected by her son.

    To name an Expressway in her honor, is to remind people that they owned the Hacienda Luisita; and Feudalism is here to stay.

    It is Ridiculous to name everything to her. A non accomplishing President, wants honor for herself thru her minions. However, History will judged her as the most corrupt and self serving President , we ever had. Her son is the same: incompetent, egoistic , credit grabbing, lazy and no good accomplishments…

  8. Royalty is coming. Imagine a house of so called law making wasting their time on this when the Phils is a third world country with little to no infrastructure, come on boys there are more pressing things.

    In any case my vote is for the Kris Aquino Annulment highway.

  9. For crying out loud. Whoever is proposing this bill is inutile. Stop renaming national roads, goverment facilities and infrastructures and ither landmarks. It is a waste of time for lawmakers to even out time on this pointless shit. The NLEX name is better as it is. And yes it is a fact that Cory never had anything to do with it’s construction or development so please. NO.

      1. Fellow Filipinos…am very impressive on your awesome comments summarily implying how inutile Congress is…in short wala silang alam sa paggawa o pagrebiso ng mga batas para sa ating kaunlaran, kasaganaan, kapayapaan at kabutihan. Now is the time to vote for QUALIFIED LEGISLATORS..yong may pinagaralan, may kakayahan, may mataas na integridad, yong walang police record at may maayos na NBI Clearance.

  10. Wala na po bang gagawin ang mambabatas kundi swelduhan lang sila para ipasa ang nasabing BATAS na baguhin ang NLEX at ipangalan sa yumaong pangulo? Do you think gaganda ang economy ng bansa natin kung magpapalit ng bagong pangalan? Wala na bang ibang alam ang ating gobyerno at mambabatas upang pasiglahin ang ating economiya? Nakakalungkot naman!

    1. hayy. naku wla na siguro tong representative na to may naisip na batas na ipasa. Wala na siguro siyang silbi diyan at ganito lang ang batas na ginawa niya its a waste og time and money di naman mag babago ang economy kung papalitan ang pangalan. Uwi ka nalang sa inyo at mag tanim ng kamote. hahaha..

    2. Ipinakikita ng congreso kung gaano kalakas ang mga Aquino basta wag kalilimutan ang bribe
      Pahabol ..wag kakalkalin ang SLN nila at bawal ang AUDIT. Lahat ng national project,sila ang gagawa at sila na ang bahala sa pangulo para di halata ang illegal transaction (cash only)

  11. Sumobra na ang pag hanga ng mga Aquino sa sarili nila at sa tingin nila ay mga diyos at diyosa na sila. Why not just rename the Philippines to Republic Of the Aquinos? Anyway dun din naman ang punta nito eh!

    1. yeah…the more daw na ipinagbubunyi ang pangalan ni cory aquino ng mga tao at isinisigaw the more daw na nahihirapan yan sa impiyerno.. kaya sigaw pa more ang pangalang CORY AQUINO…masyadong makasalan yan at daming pinapatay na tao…kaya siguradong nagdudusa ang kaluluwa niyan sa impiyerno…credit grabber at mapanira.. lahat ay gustong kunin ng di nila pag aari..

  12. all those who are instruments in getting this approved should not be reinstalled in any government position….ever!

  13. We seldom realize that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.

  14. Palitan ang Philippines name to Aquino Federal State
    Palitan ang national hero at ilagay si ninoy sa luneta..demonizing si Rizak as national hero,ABS CBN will take care of that with the help of Crony newspapers ,tax money payed pro trolls

  15. Next in line is renaming luneta park into josh national heritage and roxas blvd.into bimby blvd. Philippines is being run by this crazy and delusional family like the kardashians.

  16. most of the infrastructures in the country is from marcos term, but none of them is under his name. So why they will rename it to the aquino’s? For what? Our country became worst bec. Of them. They already took the name of the airport even the 500 peso bill. And also they are proposing that there should be cory aquino day, and to make her a national hero. This government is crazy! Those aquino’s doesn’t deserve that title. They are the traitors in our country. Government should focus to what our country needs, not to those nonsense and irritating people.

  17. Nlex name is nlex why need to change to somebody ,it was very simple for us that nlex is for noethern part expressway…

  18. BAKIT SILA BA NAGPAGAWA NKYAN ? MALAKI NA NGA SIRA ULO NAGLAHT SA GOBYERNO NI AQUINO KASI PATI MAG CABINET NIYA PAG SIN ABI AQUINO KAININ NINYO TAE KO KINAKAIAN NAMAN NILA ANO BA YANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

  19. bakit di nalang gawing Republic of Aquino ang Philippines, lahat na lang gustong nakapangalan sa kanila w wala naman silang nagawa sa Pinas!

    Jusko kunin nyo na lahat ng Aquino at cojuangco sa balat ng Pilipinas or bigyan nyo sila ng isla na lahat puedeng ipangalan sa lahat ng kamag anak nila hangang kaapuapuhan.

  20. oohh the effin nerve of that aquino! even the thought of renaming it as the cory aquino blah blah is infuriating! it is marcos’ project and they want it to bear their name?! i think we din’t lose the country to marcos or china. we lost it to cory and pnoy!

  21. ANG AQUINO WALA NAMANG GINAWA SA PILIPINAS KUNDI MAGPALIT NG MGA PANGALAN WALA NGA SILANG NAIPATAYO NA GUSALI NAKAKAHIYA NAMN AT IPANGALAN PA SA DEMONYONG NANAY NA CORY THE DEVIL WOMEN MAHIYA KA NAMN ABNOY WALA KAYONG LEGACY KUNDI KATRAYDORAN ANG PINAMANANNYO SA PILIPINAS PANINIRA SA MARCOS… MGA AQUINO TRAYDOR….

  22. Fántastico artículo
    Me parece muy conseguida tu convencimiento sobre este texto.
    Desde hace ya tiempo no puedo quitarme esto de la cabeza e intento recopilar mucha información sobre el tema.
    El tributo que has producido me ha parecido muy ventajosa, sin embargo creo que se podría analizar un tanto más y de esta manera poder puntualizar diversas dudas que todavía estimo.
    De todas formas, mil gracias por tu coperación. Voy a estar espectante a cercanas publicaciones que produzcas.
    Mil gracias.
    Adiós.

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