Ilonggo Senator Franklin Drilon has attributed the delay in the implementation of the Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge (PGN) project to the “lack of attention and support” from the present administration.
“I have been following this up with you. Hindi ako nagkukulang. I cannot understand this inordinate delay,” Drilon said during the Senate Committee on Finance’s hearing on the budget of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
“I can only point to the obvious lack of attention and support for this very important project. To be honest, I am totally disappointed at the attention given to this project as evidenced by the timetable that you have just mentioned,” he further said.
Drilon described as “unacceptable” the timetable for the P bridge project.
According to NEDA, the detailed engineering study for proposed bridge may start in October 2022 and the construction may commence in 2025 and be finished by 2030.
“Nakakalungkot na matatapos ito by 2030, nine years from now. I guess that is what we have to face. I just want the NEDA and this government to be candid and tell this is what it is kaysa paasahin ang mga tao,” Drilon said.
“My people in Region VI expected this because it will improve their lives and it will be opening up a tourist destination which would be substantial in terms of revenues and in terms of improvement of the lives of people in Guimaras,” the Senate minority leader added.
Senators Sonny Angara, Pia Cayetano and Francis Tolentino joined Drilon in pushing for an early construction of the bridge, which composed of two phases: the Panay-Guimaras section which is 13 kilometers long and the Guimaras-Negros section, 19.37 kilometers long.
“I think the Iloilo-Guimaras Bridge should be a case study for public administration students on how to stretch out a project as long as you can. Since 2016 pinag-uusapan na iyan. Every budget season ay pinag-uusapan at pina-follow-up assiduously by our minority leader and now we are told that it will be completed by 2030 in a decade and a half,” said Angara.
“It is just a 10 to 13 kilometers bridge that is a geographical feature that has been with us for at least a century. I don’t know what has taken so long. You ought to look at your procedures,” Angara told NEDA Secretary Karl Chua.
Chua committed to reviewing the timeline.
“I will meet with DOF and DPWH to review the timeline,” Chua said.
Sen. Cayetano, for her part, said: “I support that call. The call should this not be the case under the Karl Chua leadership.”
“I join the call of Sen. Drilon in fast-tracking that bridge,” said Tolentino.IMT
