MANILA - An official of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said President Rodrigo Duterte's statement about reducing travel time between Cubao, Quezon City and Makati to just 5 minutes is "mathematically impossible."

MMDA Special Operations Group head Bong Nebrija said that when the agency talks about Cubao and Makati, their points of reference are Aurora Boulevard and Ayala Avenue along EDSA.

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Since the distance between Aurora Boulevard and Ayala Avenue was around 10 kilometers, covering this distance within 5 minutes would mean going beyond EDSA's 60 kph speed limit.

However, Nebrija also said it was still "possible" to travel from Cubao to Makati in 5 minutes while keeping to the speed limit.

"We could at 60 kilometers per hour kung ang basehan natin ay ang dulo ng Cubao at ang simula ng Makati," Nebrija said in an interview with DZMM Teleradyo.

By this, he meant moving the points of reference from Aurora Boulevard to Main Avenue in Santolan, and from Ayala Avenue to Guadalupe Bridge.

This, he said, was a shorter distance spanning just 5.3 to 5.5 kilometers, and was mathematically possible.

But Nebrija added that the MMDA would already be happy if they could reduce the travel time between Aurora Boulevard and Ayala to 15 minutes from the usual 60 minutes.