Security tightened for Duterte visit to Cebu City Mar. 2

FREQUENT VISITOR TO CEBU: This April 20, 2016 file photo shows then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte campaigning for the presidency during the One Cebu general assembly at the White Gold House in Cebu City.  The rest, as they say, including the installation of the Duterte presidency, is history. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

CEBU CITY— Security is expected to be tight in Metro Cebu for the scheduled visit of President Duterte on Thursday (Mar. 2).

“The security preparations are there. We will provide the President with the highest level of security,” said Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, head of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).

Mr. Duterte is scheduled to grace the groundbreaking of the proposed toll bridge that would connect mainland Cebu to Cordova town on Mactan Island.  He will also lead the induction of officials of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) led by its re-elected president Melanie Ng, at the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino in Lapu-Lapu City later in the afternoon.

Thursday’s visit will be the third for President Duterte since he assumed office in July 2016.

The first was in August 2016 when he met and spoke with the soldiers at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command headquarters in Camp Lapu-Lapu, Lahug, Cebu City.

He returned in January 2017 for a stopover dinner at the Mactan-Benito Ebuen Airbase, where he met with Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, after visiting the families affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City, Leyte.

On Thursday, Duterte would grace the ground breaking ceremony of the Cebu-Cordova toll bridge scheduled at 3 p.m. in Barangay Pilipog in Cordova town, said Paolo Anota of Philippine Information Agency-Media Accreditation and Relations Office (PIA MARO).

The President will then ride a helicopter for an aerial inspection to see the parts of Cordova and Cebu City that the bridge would pass through, according to Anota.

At 5 p.m., the President will be at the Waterfront Airport Hotel for the CCCI induction before flying back to Manila.

Metro Pacific entered into a joint venture agreement with the local  governments of Cebu City and Cordova in April 2016 for the implementation of the P27.9-billion toll bridge project.

The agreement involves the construction, operation, and maintenance of an 8.25-kilometer bridge that will link Cebu City to Mactan Island through Cordova town.

Cebu’s third bridge project is expected to decongest traffic especially in Mandaue City where two other bridges are located.

Set for completion in 2020, the third bridge project is located around 7.5 kilometers south of the Mactan-Mandaue Bridges and will soon rise from the Cebu South Coastal Road, crossing the Mactan Channel to Mactan Island.

The third bridge is designed to have four lanes – two in each direction – and will include the main bridge structure, viaduct, causeway, roadway and toll facilities.  SFM