Cebu, Long After The War

Visitors who arrive by boat will notice that a lot has changed. Reclamation work has altered the coastline on the Cebu and Mandaue sides. Skyscrappers now just out among low dwellings. Sights of farmers tending their paddy fields within the city limits have almost disappeared. All in the name of progress.

Locals complained that the province was forgotten during the Marcos years with Cebu Having been closely associated with the opposition.

Albeit, a bridge was built to connect the island of Mactan to the mainland, but development seemed to have bypassed the country's second largest city during this period. It has been almost 14 years after the ousting of the dictator and the scenario has transformed drastically.

A new bridge stretches 1.01 kilometers across the Mactan Channel. It opened to traffic on August 3,1999. Some nine years before, former Cebu Governor Lito Osmeña met with local officials and raised the idea of building the new bridge after MV Sanko Elegance, a foreign vessel, rammed into the old bridge on November 13, 1990.

What followed, after several negotiations and discussions, was the final presentation of the proposal to the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund by the Metro Cebu Development Project.

Officials say the P2.5- billion second Mandaue-Mactan bridge can be dubbed the "Golden Gate of Cebu" because several of its enormous stretches of cables are colored. It has a four-lane two-way traffic, and can accommodate about 120,000 passenger car units a day.

The cable-stayed bridge reportedly has the world's longest center span, at 185 meters.

Project proponents said the structure would encourage foreign and domestic investors to open businesses "as well as improve tourism aspects" in the province.

Source from Sun*Star Weekend
By: Ybarra