Bohol needs that bridge link to Cebu

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said that the 18-kilometer bridge that was supposed to connect Samar to Sorsogon will not be pushing through. The massive bridge was estimated to cost almost P58 billion. A report from the Philippine News Agency (PNA) quoted National Economic and Development Authority Regional Director Bonifacio Uy as saying that the project linking Luzon and Visayas would even cost a whopping P375 billion. “It’s not only a long bridge, but the waters are really very deep…it’s much more expensive than we thought,” Pernia said.

There is no question that these are humongous ticket infrastructure projects. A case in point is the 18-kilometer bridge that was supposed to connect Samar to Sorsogon will not be pushing through. This massive bridge was estimated to cost almost P58 billion. This bridge is supposed to pass the San Bernardino Strait, which is quite deep. What we need there is a better Ro-Ro vessel to connect Matnog, Sorsogon to Allen, Samar. Meanwhile, NEDA will be revealing the updated list soon, which the Duterte administration has proposed, around 19 major bridge projects amounting to almost P500 billion.

While these are bridges that were proposed simply because it was possible to link Luzon to Samar for instance, however, I’m interested in the Bohol-Cebu Friendship Bridge (BCFB) that came out of the news that it is initially slated to start in 2020. This was bared by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Rolando Tungpalan to Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado (Bohol, 2nd District) in a meeting at the NEDA official’s office in Pasig City last week.

To be perfectly honest about it, we proposed this link way back in 1997 when I was still chairman of the utilities and infrastructure committee of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) in Region-7. This was planned simply because only 30 percent of the route would be in deep water. But more importantly, the Cebu-Bohol Bridge would bring power to the Island of Bohol and in return, it would bring fresh water from Inabanga, Bohol to Cebu City. Above all, we can actually create a new city near Jetafe in order to decongest the province of Cebu, a reality much needed today.

It was then that Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado the father of Rep. Aumentado, asked me if he could make this project his pet project and I gave him the go-signal. So the Inquirer first came out with the news report on this proposed bridge. However, Gov. Aumentado died, but now his son has continued with this project. According to Rep. Aumentado, the project’s feasibility study will be funded with a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) while the FS is slated to start this year and is projected to be completed in six to 10 months. If feasible, the bidding for the project may be scheduled this year and the construction in 2020.

The Cebu-Bohol Bridge will be a 24-kilometer series of bridges and causeways that will link Getafe in Bohol with Cordova in Cebu. It will have several exits along the way to several islands between the two provinces.

The elder Aumentado had nicknamed the structure a “three-in-one” bridge, as it will also carry cables that will bring more electricity from Cebu province to Bohol. At the same time, a pipeline will also straddle it to bring potable water from Bohol to Cebu. Such a bridge project would bring economic development both for Cebu and Bohol Island. Cancelling this project would not be good for the Duterte administration.

Incidentally, I was in Anda, Bohol last Sunday where we took a yacht from the Porter wharf in Liloan, Cebu to Anda, where it only took us two hours to the town of Tubigon. It would have been a two-hour trip. Then driving from Tubigon to Anda would have taken another two hours. Anyway, Anda is the exact opposite of Panglao Island and will become a future tourism destination of Bohol. However, I did get a report that a joint operation conducted by the army and PNP in the municipality of Bilar in Bohol, the Charlie Company of the military encountered four armed men in the area.

Is there an attempt to bring back the NPA insurgency in Bohol after it was declared “insurgency-free” by the Armed Forces on Feb. 11, 2010? But then this incident reminded me of the April and May 2017 attempt to infiltrate Bohol by the Abu Sayyaf in Inabanga where three Army soldiers, a policeman, four terrorists and two civilians were killed during the initial firefight. Subsequent firefights between the remaining militants and security forces resulted in the deaths of all the Abu Sayyaf insurgents. A ranking officer of the Philippine National Police linked to Abu Sayyaf attempted to rescue some of the insurgents but was arrested. At present, the Bohol Provincial Police Office is conducting random checkpoints in different areas across Bohol. So let’s keep Bohol insurgency free once more!

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