"Super bridge" will link Cebu, Bohol

CEBU, Philippines – Sixth district Rep. Luigi Quisumbing during a press conference yesterday said Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado and Seventh District Rep. Arturo Radaza has asked him to co-author a bill requesting for a project study of a proposed super bridge that will link the two provinces.

The bridge is to be known as the "Bohol-Cebu Multi-Access Friendship Bridge."

Quisumbing said there was a motion at the House of Representatives earlier to file a bill regarding a proposed bridge that would connect Bohol from Getafe and Cebu from Cordova.

It got a favorable support last year from the Regional Development Council-Region VII through the DPWH in Bohol endorsing it to the Economic Development Cooperation Fund for financial support for a feasibility study.

Aumentado, who was then the Bohol governor when this project was conceptualized said the bridge will vastly improve vehicular and passenger traffic between Bohol and Cebu, handle the cable through which Bohol can get more electric power and fiber optics from Cebu while Cebu would get water from Inabanga through pipes.

Noris Oculam, former president of Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the provincial government of Bohol in coordination with BCCI will start a US$3 million feasibility study before the end of the year.

Oculam said the proposed structure is "on track" since the EDCF of the Republic of Korea has already pledged to release funds for its feasibility study which will be made in a span of six months.

Although the project has already an endorsement from RDC-Region VII, it still needs an endorsement from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Neda Investment Coordination Committee technical board, the NEDA board, and the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The 90-kilometer bridge's construction is expected to cost at least P20 billion.

President Benigno Aquino III in his first visit to Cebu last month said the project is "too ambitious for now."

The RDC-7 resolution (Res. 25, s.2009) had said the proposed bridge is consistent with the Medium-Term Philippine Development Investment Plan (MTPIP) that pursues interconnection of islands through a good transport network. - with reports from Ehda M. Dagooc (FREEMAN)