A ranking lawmaker has lauded Cebu City government’s decision to award the P27-billion Cebu-Cordova Bridge Project to businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp.
“The project is a bridge to Cebu’s productivity growth. It will bolster the province’s long-term economic efficiency,” said Rep. Gerald V. Gullas, vice chairman of the House committee on public works and highways.
The bridge will be the third between the Cebu mainland and Mactan, the nation’s most densely populated island.
The 65-square kilometer island is home to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the Mactan Export Processing Zones 1 and 2, the Mactan Newtown Information-Technology Park, the five-star Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, plus dozens of high-class beach hotels and resorts.
“We are counting on the new bridge to help reduce the cost of producing goods and services, and minimize productivity losses due to traffic congestion,” Gullas, an assistant majority leader, said.
Owing to increased queuing, motor vehicles using the existing two bridges between Cebu mainland and Mactan have been experiencing slower speeds and longer trip times.
Unlike the existing two bridges that connect Mandaue City in mainland Cebu province and Lapu-Lapu City in Mactan, the third bridge will link Cebu City and the Municipality of Cordova in Mactan.
Gullas has high hopes that the new bridge will spur new business activities and improve living standards through decent jobs creation.
He credited Pangilinan and MPTDC for their readiness to mobilize private equity to build up Cebu’s infrastructure requirements.
In a Dec. 23 letter, the Cebu City government notified MPTDC that it has been “awarded the project for the formation of a Joint Venture Agreement with the City Government of Cebu and the Municipal Government of Cordova for the financing, design, construction, implementation, operation and maintenance of an 8.55- km toll road to be known as the Cebu-Cordova Bridge, including the construction of the connections to Cebu City and Cordova, the main bridge, structure, viaduct, causeway and roadway.”
MPTDC also controls the entities that operate the Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway and the North Luzon Expressway.