GUIMARAS – “This is very frustrating.”
This was Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon’s lament over the slow pace of progress on the proposed Panay-Guimaras-Negros (PNG) bridges.
“It is just like business-as-usual for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH),” said the Senate minority leader during a Senate hearing on the agency’s proposed 2021 budget.
The PNG bridges will allow easier access and open a network of more convenient transportation linkage that can transform the flow of people, goods and services between the three islands of Panay (comprising Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo provinces), Guimaras, and Negros (Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental).
Drilon pressed Public Works secretary Mark Villar to fast-track the construction of the proposed bridges that will connect the three major islands in Western Visayas.
“We hope to make it happen during this administration,” he told Villar.
Undersecretary Emil Sadain said the 32-kilometer bridge (in total) is still among the priorities of the agency. The review of the feasibility study by the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korean Eximbank) will be completed by the end of November, he revealed.
Sadain added that it is also a major priority of Korean Eximbank.
The 32-km PGN bridges are composed of two phases: the Panay-Guimaras bridge which totals 13 kilometers and the Guimaras-Negros at 19.37 kilometers.
China conducted the feasibility study but balked at financing the project. The government is now looking at the Korean Eximbank to finance the project.
Drilon urged the DPWH to provide a timeline.
“I am sharing the frustration of our people in Region 6. You cannot blame me if we try to get a more detailed commitment because I have seen this over the years where meaningful projects got stuck in the bureaucracy,” Drilon said./PN
