RDC’s 1st meeting of 2017 tackles 10 priority projects

CEBU, Philippines - World-renowned designer and businessman Kenneth Cobonpue presided over yesterday the first meeting of the Regional Development Council in Central Visayas (RDC)-7 for 2017.

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Cobonpue as co-chairperson of the RDC last week.

It is the first time for RDC-7 to be headed by someone from the private sector, as it is mostly headed by chief executives from the members of the local government units in Central Visayas.

“It is a different world. You are dealing with personalities in the world of politics. But I wanted to bring a bit of my experience to also make things as fast and as quick as possible and straight to the point because I think that is what we all need at a time like this,” said Cobonpue.

The president has not appointed a chairperson for Central Visayas whose grouping is composed of Cebu, Bohol, and Siquijor, allowing Cobonpue to sit as presiding officer.

In the meeting, 10 priority projects were approved by the council including the proposed bridges connecting Cebu-Bohol-Leyte-Negros islands in the Visayas and the flood control projects for Metro Cebu area.

Cobonpue said that he will be lobbying to Duterte for the funding of these projects since the president had asked him specific projects needed for the region.

For him, the two major problems in Cebu are traffic and flooding which he hopes to address through the lobbying of the RDC-7 in the national government's budget.

The council approved the resolution recommending the P60-million feasibility study for the construction of Bohol-Cebu bridge, Cebu-Negros Oriental bridge, and the Bohol-Leyte bridge. To ease traffic congestion in Metro Cebu area, the RDC-7 also approved P1.3 billion for the Mactan Road Network upgrade and P526 million for the widening of the H. Cortes Road.

The construction of a diversion road for V. Rama-Gorordo Avenue was pegged at P300 million.

There is also a proposed Mandaue-Consolacion-Liloan bypass road for northern Cebu and Talisay-Minglanilla-Naga bypass road for the south that was estimated to cost about P16 billion.

For flooding, P2.25 billion was also earmarked by the RDC-7.

For Bohol, the RDC-7 also recommended the Tagbilaran-Panglao bridge at P500 million.

For Siquijor, more than P300 million was allotted for the improvement of the province’s airport.

Other proposed projects include construction of a new building at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the creation of the Visayas Disaster Response Center.

The RDC-7 was attended by regional directors of national government agencies as well as Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide and Bohol Gov. Chatto. — Dale G. Israel, Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon (FREEMAN)