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VOLUME XXII No. 11
Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines
September 23, 2007 issue
 

Turnover of Loboc jumbo bridge sought

 

 

GOV. Erico Aumentado has sought the turnover of the Loboc jumbo bridge to that municipality. In a letter to Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., the governor reminded the former of the instruction of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo by cellphone to turn over the “famous” bridge so that the municipality can convert it into a park or hanging garden or whatever tourism-related purpose it will serve. President Arroyo gave the instruction to Ebdane during her visit to Loboc last August 24 when she inaugurated the Loboc Children's Theater built at P8 million with funds donated by Ambassador Carlos Chan – the Philippines' special envoy to China, watched the Loboc Children's Choir perform and had an unscheduled cruise upstream to the small busay (falls) and back.

Aumentado said the municipal government under Mayor Leon Calipusan has plans of developing the bridge into a tourist attraction and the situs of souvenir shops and other facilities to cater to thousands of tourists. To note, one of Ebdane's predecessors, former Secretary Gregorio Vigilar had called the jumbo bridge “a monument to stupidity.” The concrete bridge is built too high and has only one approach. Through the terms of several Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretaries, it has remained such – bowing to pressure from the church and the public that driving piles into the ground on both sides of the end near the Sts. Peter and Paul Parish to build ramps on might shake and rattle the historic edifice – the second oldest church hereabouts – destroying it in the process.

The Loboc Children's Choir, the Loboc Youth Choir and the Loboc Youth Band again performed mini concerts at the Children's Theater after the President returned to Manila. Prior to the concert, Calipusan hosted an open-air dinner on the bridge. Most attendees observed that the bridge “can be such a wonderful dinner venue barring rains.” The sides near the railings could be “good sites for stalls offering native snacks and souvenirs,” other guests noted. Meanwhile, Aumentado also requested Ebdane to donate to the provincial government the unused concrete piles now just being “hidden” in a nipa plantation some few kilometers away from the jumbo bridge. He said the piles will be used in the construction by the provincial government projects of other structures including the Austrian-assisted President's Bridge Program

 
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