Topline Group officials lead the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, March 22, of Pier 88 Port Development in Barangay Poblacion in Liloan town. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
LILOAN, Cebu — A traffic-free trip from Liloan town to Cebu City and Mactan Island is possible when Pier 88 will open its docks to passenger ferries by the end of 2019.
Aside from that, travel time from this northern town to Cebu City and Mactan would even be cut from an hour, said Erick Lim, president and chief executive officer of Topline Group, during the groundbreaking of Pier 88 on Friday, March 22.
Lim said that they had invested nearly P1 billion on a one hectare lot owned by the Archdiocese of Cebu in Barangay Poblacion in Liloan town.
According to Lim, the Pier 88 would serve as a port to passenger ferries and cargo catering not only passengers but to businesses as well.
Topline Group is targeting the first phase of the development to be completed by the end of 2019 or the start of 2020.
He said by then three passenger ferries, with each ferry having a seat capacity of 300 passengers, would begin operations.
The ferrries will ply two routes, the Liloan-Mactan, docking at the the Mactan Wharf near the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), and the Liloan-Cebu City route docking at Pier 3.
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Kyle Gregory Uy, Pier 88 Ventures Inc. vice president and chief operations officer (COO), said that the development would be a solution to the ‘worsening’ traffic in the northern portions of Metro Cebu.
He said that the trip to MEPZ would take only 30 minutes while the trip to Pier 3 would take 45 minutes at most.
“It’s more of easing the traffic of Metro Cebu and providing port access from Mactan, which has become a tourist destination,” said Uy.
For Lim, the Pier 88 is promising to the town as the inland port would also be a mixed-development open to businesses willing to lease spaces and a park for the locals.
“We simply want people to cut the time for travel and spend that time with their families,” said Lim.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who graced the Pier 88’s groundbreaking ceremony, said that Pier 88 was an example of how a town could progress if only the private sector, the government, and the Church would help each other.
Aside from the Presidential daughter Duterte-Carpio, Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Dennis Viilarojo, Cebu 3rd District Representative Gwen Garcia and Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco. /dbs