Cebu-Cordova Expressway breaks ground: More bridges to link islands

CEBU, Philippines - With Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway formally breaking ground yesterday, President Rodrigo Duterte plans to build more bridges to connect the Visayas regions and the entire country.

Duterte said the third bridge between Cebu and Mactan Island is the start of such plan and his way of thanking the Cebuanos and the Filipino people for giving him the unprecedented majority of votes in the last elections.

  "Maybe in the years to come, we will see a nation with bridges, connect-connect na lang na for short distances. But the far and between the wide expanse of the sea, it will take generation. But hopefully, ang unang molarga gyud diri about the island of bridges will really be the Visayas," Duterte said.

Duterte won by over 16 million votes in the last elections with 1.4 million from Cebu.

The president said the groundbreaking of the 8-kilometer toll bridge from Cebu City to Cordova town is an indication that the province’s income is growing.

 "It is a sign that your GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is growing. GDP means income. Cebu is exploding actually like Manila and I am happy kasi taga rito ang tatay ko," Duterte said during the groundbreaking ceremony of the project. He added it will change the topography and demography of Cebu.

The project will be built by Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corporation under Public-Private Partnership Program of the government.

Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of MPTDC and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, said the new bridge could ease traffic, raise the flow of commerce, business and development in Cebu. More importantly, it will also improve the overall welfare of the Cebuanos.

He said that Cordova could become the major gateway for tourism in Cebu and development because of the bridge. Pangilinan added that the project will generate at least 5,000 direct and indirect employment during the construction period.

He said it is considered to be the largest single investment by a private sector at P27.9 billion. Pangilinan’s company will operate the bridge for 35 years to recover their investment before it would be turned over to the government. The toll will range from P82 to P89 per entry.

After thirty five years, the people of Cebu will own every inch of this bridge and every kilometer of the tollways," Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan said Mactan Island and Cebu need one more additional bridge aside from the one that broke ground yesterday.

In our assessment of the potential for Mactan and Cebu is that we do need two more bridges and we would like to see the fourth bridge being built certainly in less than twenty years. We can’t wait for twenty years for another development to happen," Pangilinan  said.

He added that he had also talked with Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto on the possible Cebu-Bohol link.

added that there should also be a broader plan to link the islands of Eastern Visayas from Sorsogon to Samar-Leyte; Leyte-Bohol; Bohol-Cebu; Cebu-Negros; and Negros-Panay to one big economic region.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the CCLEX will have the biggest economic impact not only in the local government units but also to the whole country.

He thanked Duterte and Pangilinan for making the third bridge possible.

"It's a personal experience to me when I first heard my father building a bridge to Mactan, twenty years later, they built the bridge. Twenty years after that, they built the second bridge. And now, twenty years after that, we're now going to have the third bridge," he said.

Osmeña said the bridge will bring in different developments in the city and the province.

"The potential of this area for a major reclamation project, it can create all kinds of benefits in the area of tourism. There is room with the construction of the bridge, it is possible to put up a major power plant away from the city. It is possible to put an international port, this is the kind of opportunity that we should work on," Osmeña said.

"It's always been my dream, you know, before to make Cordova part of City of Cebu. Now, it's going to be Cebu City that's going to be part of Cordova," he added.

The project is expected to be completed by 2020 if the construction will commence next year. MPTDC earlier announced that the construction will start in July 2017.

MPTDC legal consultant Aristotle Batuhan assured that the construction of the project is at no cost to the government.

As of now, he said MPTDC’s technical team is currently undertaking a parcellary survey since there will be public lands that will be affected.

Under the agreement, the sharing of revenue is based on the legal framework that both Cebu City and Cordova will be shareholders of the project. Both LGUs will get a one percent share of the gross revenue instead of giving dividends. —with Odessa O. Leyson (FREEMAN)