By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — President Benigno Aquino III will lead the inauguration of two big-ticket road projects in Iloilo City on June 27.
“Upon my invitation, President Aquino will be in Iloilo next week to inaugurate the new 14-kilometer Circumferential Road and the newly widened 10-lane Sen. Benigno Aquino Avenue,” Senate President Franklin Drilon told Panay News.
Drilon said Aquino will likewise witness the turnover of a 1,000-unit low-cost housing project in Brgy. Lanit, Jaro district, to the city’s informal settlers.
The beneficiaries used to live along the Iloilo River, according to the veteran lawmaker.
A four-lane thoroughfare, the Circumferential Road will be named after President Aquino’s mother, the late former president Corazon Aquino.
Drilon said the improved roadway will provide easy access to key investment areas in the city.
“We will not stop pursuing our development goals because we want to show the whole country that if it can be done in Iloilo, it can be done anywhere,” he said in a separate speaking engagement.
Meanwhile, Iloilo City’s 10-kilometer Diversion Road had been widened to provide sidewalks and a five-meter-wide bicycle lane.
The bicycle lane will extend from Mandurriao district up to the Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan town, the Ilonggo senator said.
Drilon earlier expressed support to calls for the construction of bicycle lanes nationwide.
He said the use of bicycles in the city can help decongest traffic and save money on gas.
“The best way to promote modes of transport that do not rely on gasoline and diesel engines is to make our cities safer and more accessible and favorable to these environment-friendly forms of mobility,” he said./PN
