IT'S called the Cavite Extension Project, and something I've been looking forward to since I was a university student in the early 1980s, when the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) Project first started. It was the biggest and most ambitious project of the Marcos administration at the time. On Dec. 1, 1984, Southeast Asia's first elevated urban light railway system finally opened, connecting Baclaran and the Central Terminal in Arroceros, Manila.

The proposals for extending the LRT-1 to Cavite were pitched in the 1990s. For us living in the southern part of the metro, enduring two to three hours of traffic to get to Manila, this was a welcome development. Thirty years and five administrations later, the Cavite Extension has finally materialized — at least Phase 1 of it. Phase 2, where the real Cavite Extension project will be realized, is unlikely to happen in the next few years due to right-of-way issues, they say.