‘Regional-impact’ infra projects get top priority

Only 18 of 51 towns, cities attend Ceub Prov’l Development Council meeting  

PROPOSED infrastructure projects with regional impact will have  top priority for endorsement by the Cebu Provincial Development Council (PDC) headed by Gov. Hilario Davide III.

These include a flyover in Lapu-Lapu City, study on the Cebu-Bohol Friendship Bridge, a third Mactan-Cebu Bridge, expansion of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and a study on a new international container port in Cebu.

They were among 60 priority projects for tourism, shipbuilding, fisheries, livestock and agro-forestry  identified during a value chain analysis workshop last month.

The list of projects was presented during the PDC Sectoral Meeting at the Capitol Social Hall yesterday. No details of the projects were presented yet.

A final list  of priority projects will still be drawn up based on a scheme approved yesterday by the PDC Committee on Infrastructure and Utilities.

The committee  approved a resolution adopting the prioritization scheme of different national line agencies.

May Elizabeth Ybañez, infrastructure committee chairperson, said projects identified as lesser priorities under the new scheme, should it be approved on national level, will not be discarded.

“We will be selling those in the coming years. As funds come in, we will use that list and we will continue to update it. It will not get lost and it will not be stagnant. It will keep growing and we will use it as a basis for assessment. It will really be used all the time,” Ybañez said.

She said projects used to be identified based on a “to-each-his-own” or “segregated planning” method.

“We did not have unified planning. The result is that we have roads which don’t connect. The status is different from the other. It’s not a good way of doing investments programming. That is the reason  we introduced this reform agenda,” she said during the committee meeting at the Capitol yesterday.

“In Cebu, the different government agencies really want to sit down and work together. We want to go beyond the rhetoric and really see our values in the kind of investment planning that really brings out the infrastructure needed by the people for sustainable development,” Ybañez said.

Mayors were expected to attend since the council held an election for committee co-chairmen.

Only 18 out of 51 local government units were represented. No one came from the 3rd  district, bailiwick of Rep. and former governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

Only  eight were mayors or vice mayors. The rest were representatives.

During the value chain analysis workshop on April 14, stakeholders identified priority projects for tourism, shipbuilding sector, fisheries, livestock and agro-forestry.

The  tourism sector listed the construction of lounges, additional amenities, information monitoring on gate departure, arrivals and baggage carousel for the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

The widening of the Punta Engaño Road  to the Mactan and Lapu-Lapu Shrine was also listed.

Committee resolutions will be sent to to the PDC Full Council, chaired by  the Cebu governor. A meeting  is set for June 10. /with ADMU Intern Shaneika Edryce T. Lim