P60M for lighting-up project ok'd
TACLOBAN CITY — A budget of P60 million has been approved by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) to finance the lighting-up project of the iconic San Juanico Bridge, and boost local tourism.
With strong endorsement for funding since last year from the Regional Development Council-Region 8, chaired by Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez, the multi-million project is expected to start anytime soon this year.
The project, which is also a part of the Eastern Visayas Tourism Roadmap, also has components for construction of a baywalk and a viewing deck at the Leyte side.
The group, on the Samar side, headed by Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan Delos Santos, said that they, in collaboration with RDC-8, are also planning some development to boost the area’s image as the region’s primary tourist spot.
Romualdez said the project has been designed to draw in more tourists to the bridge—linking the islands of Leyte and Samar—that is one of the most famous structures in Tacloban and Eastern Visayas, if not the whole country.
The RDC-8 chairperson, in last year’s meeting with the Department of Tourism-8 and the National Economic Development Authority-8, received the concept and thematic lighting design plan of the project, which will be similar to other welllighted bridges in Asia that became tourist attractions on their own.
San Juanico Bridge, built during the term of former president Ferdinand Marcos and completed in 1972, spans 2.162 kilometers and, featuring an arched truss, offers a picturesque view of the San Juanico Strait between the two islands.
Dubbed as the ‘Bridge of Love’ at the time, the late president Marcos dedicated it to his wife, the former First Lady and now Ilocos Norte 2nd district Representative Imelda Romualdez Marcos who hails from Tacloban City and Tolosa, Leyte.
There are reported moves in Congress now to change the name of the San Juanico Bridge, currently the country’s longest inter-island span, to Marcos Bridge.