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BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila Reporter
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MANILA – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is taking steps to realize the proposed bridge that will connect Iloilo province to Guimaras and Negros islands, Secretary Mark Villar said.
Once the feasibility study is completed, the DPWH can “push the project forward,” Villar said during a hearing on Tuesday on the department’s flood control project and other priority projects for 2017.
“We are conducting the study,” Villar told Panay News after the hearing. “We are taking our preliminary steps … We are at the preliminary phase. Para sa akin, sanakikitako,magandangproject angbridge.”
The DPWH hopes to open bids for the bridge project “by next year.”
Villar is “fairly confident” the project will be completed before President Rodrigo Duterte’s term ends.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiribelieves the project will make the transport of goods easier. Tourism is also expected to get a boost, said the senator, whose father is a native of Negros Occidental.
Zubiri also said he is pushing for a “One Visayas Bridge”program that will link Iloilo, Guimaras and Negros Occidental to Cebu.
“So, from Negros, you go through Dumaguete (city in Negros Oriental), and you interconnect it to Santander, which is the southern tip of Cebu,” he told Panay News.
“Once we connect that, we now proceed to Bohol through Olanggo Island,” he said.“With that, you can have breakfast in Boracay and dinner in Tagbilaran (City), Bohol. That’s the best tourism come-on.”
A 1999 study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency showed the 23.2-kilometer proposed bridge would cost P54 billion, but the DPWH said in 2010 the project would require only P28.4 billion.
Trade and tourism prospects will “offset” the project cost, Zubiri said.
“Fifty billion pesos is smaller than our 4Ps (PantawidPamilyang Pilipino Program) budget,” he said. “We sacrifice P50 billion for a year, but we can interconnect the islands of Panay, Negrosand Guimaras.”/PN
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