Witnessed by hundreds of spectators including national and local government officials, the event formally connected the STAR expressway from Sto. Tomas, the northernmost town of the province, to Batangas City’s Barangay Balagtas, gateway to the Batangas International Container Port.

President Arroyo and her party arrived at 10 a.m. aboard a helicopter at Lipa Fernando Airbase. Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto headed the welcome reception along with Batangas 4th district Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, Lipa City Mayor Oscar Gozos, Southern Luzon Command (SolCom) Commanding General Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Obaniana, Philippine National Police (PNP) Region 4 Director Chief Supt. Ricardo Padilla and other dignitaries.

On a stage near the tollway entrance, the President cited the importance of the STAR Tollway as one of the projects that fulfill the commitments she made in her last State-of- the-Nation Address to build infrastructure milestone projects all over the country.

After the ribbon-cutting, Mrs. Arroyo made the symbolic waving of the green flag to signify the soft-opening of the STAR Tambo-Balagtas portion. She then viewed the passing through for the dry-run of a transport convoy of government and civilian vehicles such as cars, jeeps, vans, buses, cargo trucks, motorcycles and others. One tourist bus and five compact natural gas (CNG)-fueled buses also passed through. The CNG buses were on an experimental drive, a project of the Department of Transportation and Communications.

The STAR Infrastructure Development Corp. project contractor said the newly completed tollway extension was made at a cost of P2.5 billion.

Major structures in the 19.74-km stretch include two interchanges, seven concrete river bridges, three overpasses, three underpasses and one pedestrian crossing.

Started in 2006, it was finished in 27 months.