Friday, January 11, 2008 Too early yet to talk about Trans-axial: Gwen
THE Provincial Economic Enterprise Council has yet to scrutinize the multi-billion Trans-axial Project.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said she doesn’t talk much about the project because “this is not the time to talk but the time first to prepare the plans and to work.”
But Garcia assured the groups who raised environmental concerns she is taking their issues into consideration.
Champion
“I will not claim to be the best champion but I certainly am a champion in the preservation of our environment and if we are to go into development, it must be a sustainable manner,” she said.
An environmentalist group has warned that the mountains of Cebu are not stable and are prone to prone to landslide.
The project also needs to cross the watersheds in the Central Cebu Protected Landscaping, endangering Cebu’s water supply.
Garcia said the ECC which she chairs still has to scrutinize, analyze and evaluate those that have prepared the project.
“We will need to see if indeed what has been presented is what we envisioned the highway to be,” she said.
Project
She said this is not the right time to talk about the project as it still has to go through a long process.
“I don’t think it will do us any good to be wasting so much words, emotions and newsprints on an issue that does not have to be an issue,” she said.
The Trans-axial Project is the brainchild of Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez. It is a highway that will traverse Cebu’s mountains, from Daanbantayan in the North and Santander in the South.
It is planned to have at least four economic zones and to be bid out internationally on a Build-Transfer-Operate scheme. (MBG)
