By Rio N. Araja

THE Metro Manila Development Authority is urging owners of commercial buildings in Quezon City to lease out their properties so it can build at least three more inns for transients, an official said yesterday.

?We want very spacious buildings so we can accommodate 1,000 to 2,000 clients a day if possible,? general manager Robert Nacianceno told Standard Today.

He said negotiations were under way to convince the owners of three buildings on Quezon Avenue, Commonwealth and Balintawak to lease their properties to his agency.

He echoed Chairman Bayani Fernando?s plan to keep on building workers? inns in Metro Manila up to 2010. With more affordable inns, he said, transients would contribute to easing traffic gridlock by commuting only when necessary.

Nacianceno said Fernando was also looking at one of the buildings in the 120-hectare Food Terminal Inc. to build a bigger inn within the special economic zone.

?The Gwapotel project continues to receive an overwhelming support from the people. That?s why we are looking for bigger structures,? he said.

President Arroyo inaugurated the MMDA?s second worker?s inn, formerly the Emmanuel Hospital on Jose Abad Santos Street in Tondo, Manila, on June 12 last year.

The agency?s first inn on Bonifacio Drive in Port Area, Manila, opened in May 2007. For P25, a guest may stay for eight hours and take an eight-minute bath.

?We are not losing money. On the other hand, we are not earning that much,? Nacianceno said.

?We?re making just enough money for maintenance and to continue serving people.?