EDITORIAL - If bridges could cry

A local television station, reporting on the start of preventive maintenance and repairs at the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge next week, referred to the four-decades-old span on a bottom screen crawling bulletin as “The 1st Mactan-Mandaue Bridge.”

This referral is a very common mistake that many in the Cebu media continue to carelessly perpetuate, thus resulting in the misinformation and miseducation of the public. This is ironic because it is often the media upon whom the public relies for correct and precise information.

While the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge is indeed the first to link Cebu mainland and Mactan, it is incorrect to refer to it officially as the First Mandaue-Mactan Bridge. It is even more wrong to use “1st” which refers to a ranking (1st place), not a chronological order (first to be born).

The official name of the span is simply the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge. Period. Built in 1972 by Ferdinand Marcos, it was supposed to be called the Ferdinand Marcos Bridge. But the Cebuanos opposed the plan. And so the bridge was called what it simply is -- the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.

To call it the First Mandaue-Mactan Bridge is to imply that the second bridge to Mactan is the Second Mandaue-Mactan Bridge. There is no such bridge. The second bridge has a name. It is called the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.

The Marcelo Fernan Bridge may be the second bridge to Mactan but it is definitely not the Second Mandaue-Mactan Bridge, and this nitpicking has to be insisted upon to ensure erroneous use of official names do not get perpetuated and only the correct information gets to the public.

The Internet doesn't help any. The first item that jumps out is a Wikipedia entry that is even more confused than the Cebu media. The Wikipedia item calls the bridge variously as “First Mactan-Mandaue Bridge,” “the Mactan-Mandaue Bridge,” and “Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.”

Again, the correct name of the first bridge to Mactan is simply “Mandaue-Mactan Bridge.” The second bridge is the “Marcelo Fernan Bridge.” Once these correct names get perpetuated, there would be no need to use the words “first” or “second,” especially if you spell it “1st” or “2nd.”