President Rodrigo Duterte (fifth from left) and Manny Pangilinan, Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp. (MPTDC) chairman (sixth from left), lead the lowering of the time capsule during the groundbreaking of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Barangay Pilipog in Cordova town. Cebu City Gov. Hilario Davide III and Cordova Mayor Mary Therese Sitoy-Cho (left) were among the government officials who attended Thursday’s event.
PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
AN iconic structure linking Cebu City to the town of Cordova will soon rise in the Mactan Channel.
The Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) broke ground yesterday afternoon at the boundary of Barangays Dapitan and Pilipog in Cordova.
President Rodrigo Duterte led the laying down of a time capsule in the project site in the Cordova side together with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Cordova Mayor Therese Sitoy-Cho, officials from private proponent Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp. (MPTDC) led by its chairman Manny Pangilinan, and other national government officials.
“I have dreamed of this project for 20 years. As a matter of coincidence, the start and the possible completion in two years will fall under the administration of President Duterte to whom I owe everything, and whom I consider to be the best hope for federalism in this country,” said former Cordova mayor and now Presidential Adviser for Legislative Affairs Adelino Sitoy in a speech during the groundbreaking ceremony.
The P28-billion public-private partnership project is expected to start construction by July this year, said MPTDC chairman Pangilinan.
He said the project, which is their first tollways project outside Luzon, is expected to make Cordova a major gateway for tourism in Cebu.
“Earlier I’ve told the president that this could be the third bridge, but our own assessment of the potential of Mactan and Cebu is that you do need two more bridges. And we’d like to see the fourth bridge being built certainly in much less than 20 years,” Pangilinan said in his speech.
He added that the project is also expected to generate 5,000 jobs during the course of the project’s construction.
Pangilinan said he also got to talk with Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto, who also attended the event, about their hopes to also have a bridge connecting Bohol to Cebu.
To this, Pangilinan said he told Chatto “absolutely.”
“It can be done. We have spoken to several Chinese contractors, and they have offered their help in getting that dream for Eastern Visayas realized. Hopefully under the president,” he said.
In a later press conference yesterday evening at the Radisson Blu Hotel, MPTDC President Rodrigo Franco said the CCLEX would be a “distinctive feature” in Cebu.
Among the 8.25-kilometer CCLEX’s main feature is its unique design. It will also have a toll plaza which will have a light ring around it.
At night, Franco said the bridge would light up, and on top of the main bridge’s tower would be a lighted cross.
Franco, however, said that they were still working on a couple of pending documentary requirements.
These include an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which he said is already underway; a permit from the Philippine Reclamation Authority; and approval from the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB).