Vice Guv explains viability of trans-axial highway project

Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. yesterday explained the viability of the Capitol’s P300-million trans-axial highway project, and repudiated earlier claims of Mayor Tomas Osmeña that it will not be realized due to some obstacles.

The vice governor, who was the project’s main proponent, said that the primary reason of its viability has been that it will be done under the build-transfer-operate scheme, which means that the Capitol will “not spend a single centavo” because it will be the investor or contractor who will shoulder the project cost.

Under the scheme, the Capitol will invite investors to build the project, who in turn will transfer the project ownership later to the Capitol. After the transfer, it will be Capitol’s turn to maintain and operate the project, Sanchez said as he also tried to erase the doubts raised by Osmeña on Wednesday about the project. 

Osmeña at the time said, “I don’t think they (Capitol) will get it through because they don’t know how. And even if they know, it’s not that easy.” The mayor reasoned out that even in the detailed engineering works alone, the province will have to spend P500 million.

This financial hindrance, added to legal, political, and even environmental issues, made the project unviable, Osmeña said. The provincial government has to deal with the issue of protecting the watershed area that the proposed trans-axial highway will have to cut across, he said.

On Osmeña’s claim of the so-called political obstacle, Sanchez answered: “I don’t think that political matter is an obstacle. If only everybody will set aside personal agenda and look at economic progress instead, then this project will be realized.”

The trans-axial highway will run across the mountains, from Daanbantayan in the north to Santander in the south. This early, an environmentalist group warned that Cebu mountains may be unstable and susceptible to landslide; and that Cebu’s water supply may be endangered because the highway has to cut through the watersheds in the Central Cebu Protected Landscaping.

Sanchez told The Freeman yesterday that he would clarify and explain the issues behind the project, and that he is not picking a fight with Osmeña or anybody who opposes the project.

Sanchez said that most people have thought that the 300-kilometer highway will run across watershed areas. “What the people don’t understand about the project is that about 220 kilometers of this highway already exist. The watershed areas are already on existing roads. That’s already being addressed,” he said, adding that the investors will have to build only the 80-kilometer road.

Putting up power and water systems in this economic zone, Sanchez is confident that any investor on the project would be able to recover his expenses on project over a certain period. The vice governor showed a map of the proposed project and terms of reference for the investors, which will be submitted to Governor Gwendolyn Garcia today for approval. — Gerome M. Dalipe/RAE