The aggressive infrastructure program of the Duterte administration is off to another good start with last week’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEx).
President Duterte was guest of honor at the event, where he joined local officials, as well as key officers of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and its subsidiary, Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp. (MPTDC), in getting the project off the ground.
The CCLEx will connect Cebu City to the municipality of Cordova. It will be an 8-kilometer toll bridge facility consisting of a main bridge stay cable, an approach viaduct, on-and-off ramps, toll plaza and secondary bridges. It will cost P27.9 billion to build.
“It not only symbolizes the future we are trying to get to, but also demonstrates the progress that we’ve already made to get to this day,“ said Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of MPIC and MPTDC.
CCLEx is considered a trailblazer because it is the first public-private partnership (PPP) outside Metro Manila and is the first bridge venture of MPIC/MPTDC. The P27.9-billion budget already includes right-of-way costs, as well as the rehabilitation of Guadalupe River. The project was fast-tracked by using the PPP provision of the Local Government Code. MPTDC, through its subsidiary, Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway Corp. (CCLEC), will design, build and operate the bridge. MPTDC currently operates some of the country’s major expressways, such as the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and Manila Cavite Toll Expressway.
The CCLEx is one of the biggest infrastructure projects outside Manila implemented since Duterte became President.
CCLEx underscores MPIC’s full support for Duterte’s inclusive growth agenda anchored on an aggressive infrastructure build-up. The project will further boost MPIC status as No. 1 in the Philippine toll- road business.
The governors of Cebu and Bohol fully support the project and are looking forward to more bridges to be built connecting the islands in the Visayas and Mindanao. The expressway will be the third bridge that will link Mactan Island and mainland Cebu.
The project will benefit Cebuanos in more ways than one.
Vehicle traffic is expected at 40,000 once the bridge is completed by 2020. It will not only ease traffic congestion in Metro Cebu, but also benefit plane passengers as this bridge will have a direct link between Cebu City and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
For Cordova Mayor Mary Therese Sitoy-Cho, the new bridge will boost Cordova’s local economy and allow it to become one of the highly urbanized cities of Metro Cebu and eventually become a competitive ecotourism gateway in the Visayas. The construction of the bridge will open up 5,000 jobs to residents of Cordova. The project will also provide an additional source of revenue to the town from taxes and permits.
The bridge project will generate jobs, as well as boost trade and
commerce, real-estate development, and tourism-related activities in Cebu province as a whole.
Why can’t we defeat Abu Sayyaf?
The Abu Sayyaf bandit group has been around since the mid-1990s—more than two decades, in fact—and committed many atrocities, but it looks like the government is unable to annihilate them.
Last we checked, the military had fielded close to 10,000 troops to hunt down the bandits who have terrorized Mindanao from their strongholds in Basilan and Sulu and have launched kidnapping-for-ransom, beheadings of captives and bombings.
The latest atrocity by the Abu Sayyaf Group is the beheading of their German captive, Juergen Gustav Kantner, after the deadline they imposed for the ransom payment lapsed on February 26. The bandits demanded P30 million in ransom for the release of Kantner, whom they seized in November last year.
The military estimates that the strength of the Abu Sayyaf is only around 200 to 400 men, yet they have managed to keep the military at bay despite its formidable land (infantry, crew-served weapons and tanks), air (attack helicopters and lately even supersonic jets) and sea (various patrol craft capable of intercepting small but fast seacraft). On February 25 the Philippine Air Force launched air strikes against the bandits in Sulu as the deadline approached for the group to behead its German captive.
What is clear is that the purely military approach is not working. The Abu Sayyaf apparently draws logistical and moral support from communities where it operates. Besides, they have intimate familiarity with the jungle terrain.
At this point, we must ask why the Abu Sayyaf is still operating in Sulu, where the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), led by its founding chairman, holds sway. Is the MNLF actively supporting the Abu Sayyaf despite Misuari’s recent pledge to help the Duterte administration achieve peace in Mindanao?
The long-term solution to the Abu Sayyaf clearly lies in socioeconomic programs that will uplift the living conditions of Basilan and Sulu which are among the poorest provinces in the country.
But the government cannot even set up livelihood programs in communities where the Abu Sayyaf operates. Thus, the need for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to relentlessly go after the bandits and win over the communities that support them.
We see the Abu Sayyaf continuing to kidnap both foreigners and locals and hold them for ransom unless the Duterte administration is able to put a stop to their attacks on government forces and atrocities against innocent civilians.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.