DPWH: Road contractors should work 24/7!
While this week is already the Sinulog Week, this time we won't be featuring anything about the Sinulog because we've already done this for the nearly 15 years that this talk show has been in existence. However, we will be presenting to you the people who will be with us for the next 25 years. So allow me to introduce to you the folks who are running the GMR-Megwide consortium that won the bid to lease the Mactan Cebu International Airport for 25 years, which they paid P14.4 billion to the Department of Transportation & Communications.
I used the Sinulog Week to introduce the GMR-Megawide Consortium because after all, 99% of our tourists would enter Cebu through the Mactan Cebu International Airport. To tell their story, we have with us Mr. Andrew Aquash Harrison and Ms. Estee Marie Patino-Plunket, head of Corporate Affairs for GMR-Megwide. Privatizing the Mactan Airport was planned when I was still a member of the Board of Directors at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority. Finally it happened!
In fact, the original group that showed a keen interest in privatizing MCIAA was the British Airport Authority, which is why we travelled to London, England in the late 90's. Nearly all airports in the United Kingdom have been privatized. This is a very important step for Cebu because everyone knows that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has gotten the ugly reputation as the "Worst Airport in the World."
Perhaps the problem lies upon the fact that our government officials, especially those running our airports have no sense of public service. Yet they are supposedly public servants. For this year, I haven't yet travelled out of Cebu, but I already heard many good things that the GMA-Megwide Consortium has been doing and it can only be attributed to the fact that these people also run the New Delhi International Airport and the International Airport in Istanbul. As Mr. Harrison told me, their objective is for travelers in and out of the Philippines to fly first to Mactan, and then proceed to their final destinations after a stopover in Cebu. No government official has ever set such an objective in any airport here. This means we can truly have more fun in the Philippines!
So please watch Mr. Andrew Harrison and Estee Marie Plunket on SkyCable's channel 61 tonight at 8:00 with replays on Wednesday and Saturday, same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Friday at 7:00AM & 9:00PM
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I met Department of Public Works & Highways regional director Ador Canlas during the 888 New Forum last week and I can only hope that DPWH would be able to meet the deadline to fix the temporary steel bridge at the approach of the Dumlog Bridge that collapsed at the height of Tropical Storm Seniang. I also gathered that the Saliring Bridge in Malabuyoc is already passable and it is because DPWH has sent workers to work for 24 hours so that their deadlines can be met.
At this point, I would like to appeal to Director Canlas that he ought to force the contractors working at the H. Cortes and A.S. Fortuna Ave. to also work for 24 hours because they have caused a massive traffic jams in Mandaue City, which has also affected the Banilad-Talamban Road. If I had my way, I would turn DPWH road maintenance to follow the schedules of call centers so they would be working at night when most of our people are asleep. While it is early to congratulate Director Canlas, let me just say that he is headed in the right direction by working 24 hours until the job is completed. Of course, he must also ensure that the temporary bridge should not become permanent.
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There must be some kind of divine providence that somehow made me read books about Philippine history at the turn of the 20th century. Last November, my good friend, Mon Blanch gifted me with the book "The Imperial Cruise" written by James Bradley who wrote the national bestsellers "Flags of our Fathers" and Flyboys."
I already wrote about this book because it brought me to realize that my generation and the generation after me were reading books on history written by Teodoro Agconcillo and Gregorio Zaide that was history in the eyes of the Americans. Yet it was sheer American propaganda.
But last Saturday, we graced the book launching of "The Battle for Cebu" written by Michael Culliname published by the University of San Carlos Press. I have been trying to get hold of Mr. Culliname and I finally met him last Saturday in time when Mayor Michael Rama made him adopted son of Cebu. This book is about the Siege of Sudlon in 1899-1900.
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