Father of the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge (Part 2)

Governor Rene G. Espina, called the "Road Building Governor," resigned in September 1969 as governor and Cabinet secretary to run for the Senate. Espina was under the ticket of the Nacionalista Party of incumbent president Ferdinand E. Marcos who was seeking for reelection.

Espina placed 7th in the senatorial elections held on November 11, 1969. He was the only Cebuano-speaking victor, with a vote of 3,668,334. The other winning candidates in order were: Arturo Tolentino (Nacionalista), Gil Puyat (Nacionalista), Jose Diokno (Nacionalista), Lorenzo Sumulong (Nacionalista), Ambrosio Padilla (Liberal), Gerardo Roxas (Liberal), and Mamintal Tamano (Nacionalista).

Espina, who led the Nacionalista Party and official campaigner of Marcos in Cebu, gave the following result for Cebu: Marcos got 156,091 votes while Serge "Serging" Chiong Veloso Osmeña Jr. of the Liberal Party got 117,283 votes. Serging lost to Marcos in Cebu with 38,808 votes.

The Mandaue-Mactan Bridge, which was inaugurated on July 4, 1973, was eventually constructed by Vicente Ponce, with an agreement that he collects a toll, but during Martial Law, this was ordered stopped by Marcos since the government assumed the loan, since San Juanico Bridge was not also exacting or collecting fee.

The San Juanico Bridge was inaugurated by President Marcos two days ahead of the inauguration of the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge, the construction of which was started when Espina was governor of Cebu and completed when he was part of the "Presidential Adviser of Four," composed of Perez, Barbero and Aspiras as the Senate was padlocked by Marcos when he declared Martial Law in 1972.

Rene is the son of spouses Rafael Espina and Tarcela Gandiongco. He was born on December 26, 1929 in Cebu City. He was a graduate of the University of Southern Philippines and was admitted to the Bar on January 22, 1955 as bar topnotch (with a grade of 93.2 percent). In his reelection in 1967, he picked the following as his board members: Atty. Pablo "Pabling" Paras Garcia (the private lawyer hired by Governor Espina and the duo saved the provincial lots from being donated to Cebu City), Reynaldo "Rening" Mendiola and Atty. Valeriano "Valer" Carillo.

The mother of Governor, Secretary and Senator Rene Espina by the name of Tarcela came from the old family of Parian. This is Rene Espina's bloodline from the mother side: his mother Tarcela was the daughter of spouses Don Cresencio Gandiongco and Petra Veloso. Tarcela had a sister by the name of Natividad who married a Singson.

Petra, the maternal grandmother of Rene (mother of Tarcela), was the daughter of Don Guillermo Veloso and Antonina Gantuangco who had two other children: Don Tereso Veloso  and Lucia who first married a Sanson and then remarried to Don Policarpio Vano.

Don Tereso Veloso, brother of Petra Veloso (grandmother of Rene), had a son by the name of Dominador who became a lawyer on December 5, 1931 and was appointed as Justice of the Peace of Liloan and Pintuyan, Leyte on February 8, 1946, then later as assistant fiscal of Cebu on May 25, 1949.

A descendant of the Gantuangco clan of Parian by the name of Concepcion Gantuangco Briones wrote a book entitled "Life in Old Parian", a repository of the history of Cebu's glorious past and people that made Cebu great.

Atty. Rene Espina, "Father of the Mactan  Bridge," married Rufinita "Pining" de Leon Remollo of Negros Oriental and they had the following children: Rene Mari, Jean Franco and Erik Miguel, Commander of the 1901st Ready Reserve Infantry Division with the rank of Colonel, a Legion of Honor awardee, former newscaster of the PTV-4, columnist of the Manila Bulletin, TV host of a program in Global News Network (GNN) in Manila and presently based in Cebu and hosts the program "Ang Republika" aired over SkyCable and MyTV.