Cebu-Bohol Bridge would decongest Cebu

Three years ago I interviewed on my TV talkshow Straight from the Sky a fellow who was very good in explaining the taxes we pay in this country. He has worked as a revenue officer with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and knew why many BIR officials were corrupt, simply because the system allowed them more than enough leeway to deal with people who would rather pay under the table than pay the government their due in taxes. Three years ago, this fellow was gung-ho that the Philippines should go into a serious tax reform something which we thought was far-fetched!

Two weeks ago, I was blessed to interview once again Mon Abrea who is now popularly known as “Mr. Tax Whiz” and was selected as a fellow in 2016 for the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEAL). In 2015, he was named as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM) and is the founding president for the Center for Strategic Reforms of the Philippines Inc. He is one person who proudly claims that he helped our Congressmen and Senators who passed the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law that was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte and is now the law of the land.

While anti-Duterte critics are attacking the TRAIN law, Mon Abrea has answers to each and every attack that is thrown on the path of TRAIN. To prove his point, he does not only appear on television to be interviewed, but he also came up with a booklet entitled “Got A Question About Taxes?” He simplified a hundred questions about estate tax rate, TRAIN packages, questions by employees and corporations, which he gives out to interested parties. He is one fellow who believes that the reform via TRAIN is good for everyone, above all, the country!

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I spent my weekend taking the latest Ro-Ro vessel, the Fast Cat Batangas from the Port of Cebu to the Port of Tubigon just across the Bohol Strait. I was really taken aback that this new Ro-Ro vessel could take in more than 30 cars or vans and the very comfortable trip took only an hour and a half and you’re in Bohol. We brought in two vehicles for the land trip to the town of Anda, which is on the other side of Bohol at the Anda White Beach Resort. This is one part of Bohol that faces the Mindanao Strait and across the Island of Leyte. It’s a two-hour car ride from Tubigon, passing by Sagbayan, Sierra Bullones, Carmen, Pilar, Candijay then on to Anda.

As the weather was uncooperative last Saturday, we decided to go on a road trip to Ubay on the northeastern side of Bohol nearly 50 kms from Anda. Ubay has a special meaning for me because during our days as chairman of the Infrastructure and Utilities Committee (IUC) of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) we approved the construction of the Ubay Stock Farm and the mother dam, a series of irrigation dams that would supply water to the farms in the surrounding area. Ubay was also my favorite hunting ground for homegrown wild ducks, which many pseudo environmentalists dubbed as migratory birds! Ever since I was a little boy, I used to shoot wild ducks in the Segura Farms in Cadumayao estate in Catigbian, Bohol.

But this time around, we merely drove around the area in Ubay, looking at the mother dam. One great thing about having a road trip in Bohol is the near absence of traffic, as compared to the traffic congested roads of Cebu Province, where more often than not, if you want to travel a hundred kilometers north to DaanBantayan, it will take you hours because of traffic. Travelling south to Carcar City is even worse as it would often take you two hours to travel the 40-kilometer road, a road that in the old days would only take my family 45 minutes.

Last weekend was quite educational for me because it validated what we suggested way back in 1997 during our RDC days, when we proposed to link the Island of Cebu to the Island of Bohol via a land bridge, similar to the Florida Keys, which is a roadway from Miami, Florida to Key West, which could greatly decongest Cebu Province. I’ll expound on this later. A similar land bridge is now being constructed from Hong Kong, near the Chep Lap Kok International Airport all the way to Macao, nearly 50 kilometers long.

Last Saturday was the first time for me to take the new Fast Cat Ro-Ro as my kidney transplant last November 2016 prevented me from travelling back to Bohol, something I used to do quite often. In the old days, we would take the Lite Shipping Ferry barges that would take our cars across the Bohol Strait. When the Fast Cat arrived in the Port of Tubigon, I was taken aback that Lite Shipping was having sea trials for their new Ro-Ro vessel, which is very similar to the Fast Cat. Clearly my good friend, Lucio Lim did not want his competitor to beat him with a new Ro-Ro vessel, so he came up with a new one of his own. Indeed, this is what competition can do.

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