Those ‘grand’ projects
WITH the Duterte administration's plan to raise infrastructure spending to seven percent of the domestic product and the possibility of more publicprivate partnership projects being hatched, talks about grand projects in some parts of the country have been pouring in.
For the Visayas, the “grandest” is what has been presented by former Cordova mayor Adelino Sitoy, now the Presidential Adviser on Legal Affairs and head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office. Sitoy recently talked about bridges connecting Cebu to Negros Oriental, Cordova to Jetafe town in Bohol and Carlos P. Garcia town in Bohol to Maasin City in Southern Leyte.
The Cordova-Jetafe bridge, called the Cebu-Bohol Friendship Bridge, is also being pushed by Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol's second district. The proposal has already been approved by the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 and by the Board of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda). As for the other bridges, Sitoy said he already broached the idea to President Rodrigo Duterte, who referred him to the Department of Transportation (DOTr)
Recently, the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB) talked about a “grand” project closer to home, the Carcar City to Danao City circumferential road, the viability of which is still being studied by two groups. Some not-so-grand projects like the circumferential road from the City of Naga to Barangay Lahug in Cebu City may have better chances of being realized, though.
With a relatively new administration in place, government officials are naturally upbeat about conceiving grand projects and of their capabilities to implement and complete these within the President's sixyear term. But while there is no law that bars government officials from dreaming, it would also be good to be upfront with the public about the challenges that these projects need to hurdle.
Consider that even the third bridge that would connect mainland Cebu to Mactan island, while it has hurdled the initial stages, will still take some time before the first vehicle could cross it.