It was in the late 70’s when I crossed, for the first time, the island of Cebu to go to Toledo City. As a young lawyer then, I was doing a corporate errand for Dr. Jose R. Gullas. That trip, a beginning of many years to follow, brought me thru the perilous Manipis road and it was as terrifying a travel as any uninitiated could get. But, I had no option because that was then the only connection between the two cities. The distance covered some 49 kilometers starting from one city hall and ending at the other city hall.
Adapting to such a kind of a dangerous travel was not easy although it did not take me a long time to make such adjusting. A good development ensued in the early 80’s. My boss’s elder brother, then Gov. Eduardo R. Gullas, as faired-haired Malacañang boy at that time, pulled his strings to open a much safer and very well paved Naga-Uling highway. Its total length of about 59 kilometers (again, city hall to city hall) became the second link between Cebu and Toledo cities.
A Cebu leader later thought of opening another avenue bridging the eastern and the western sides of the province. This was in the early 90’s when the then honorable Gov. Emilio “Lito” Osmeña accomplished what was earlier perceived to be an almost impossible undertaking. His trans-central highway connected Balamban town and Cebu City by cutting thru mountainsides and it became the third connection between the two sides of the island. Thru this road, the distance from Cebu City hall to Toledo City hall covered some 66 kilometers, by far the longest.
In the initial few months of the first term of the Her Honor, the Cebu Provincial Governor, Gwendolyn F. Garcia, I wrote in this column a wish. I imagined that a fourth link between Cebu and Toledo was viable. It would have been the shortest connection of about 45 kilometers.
Shortly after my article, the lady governor sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and chocolates. Her gift was a little bit untimely though because it reached my home when I was then on a foreign sojourn. In her note, however, she said she very interested in the idea and that she would ask her engineers to take a serious look at the project.
I was very enthusiastic to receive the telephone call of Atty. Jong Sepulveda (Nyor, I call him), the governor’s able consultant, few weeks after my column. We talked in the language of dreamers more than in the technical lingo of engineers we were not.
I pointed out that the link could make use of an unfinished project of the former Pres. Joseph Estrada. It should probably start off from a very wide concrete highway, (courtesy of Erap thru Sen. John H. Osmeña), that rolled up from Barangay Bonbon of Cebu City, to about few kilometers nearing Sinsin. For the information of those who are not familiar with this road, from Cebu City hall to where the supposed highway ended, its distance is already about 17 kilometers.
On the side of Toledo City, there is, at present, a concrete road that starts from the coastal highway somewhere in Barangay Dumlog. I was told that this is intended to reach Barangay Capitan Claudio and if that stretch is completed, it covers a distance of about 12 kilometers from Toledo City hall.
I take the pains of writing the estimates, in kilometers, to show that there is just a short stretch to complete this fourth road link. Only less than 20 kilometers have to be done but this is the third and therefore last term of Gov. Garcia. It is precisely because the lady governor is about to vacate the capitol that I believe she will push the completion of this fourth link.
I am sure that the good relations between the governor and our own city hall will work wonders here. Of course, I expect that the Cebu City south district representative might try to exert his influence to block this project. But, the optimist in me says that when the congressman gives this idea a more patriotic study, he will agree that when completed, this new link will become the most important artery between Cebu and Toledo Cities.
Let us hope that the trio of Gov. Gwen, Mayor Mike and Rep. Osmeña can attain the fruition of this project.!