Monday, September 08, 2008 Despite setbacks, Lapu-Lapu chases its P10.29B dream By Allan I. Varquez Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IT’S an ambitious plan, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza has admitted, but the City hopes to recover in five to 10 years what it will invest in the Mactan North Reclamation and Development Project (MNRDP).
With the venture, Lapu-Lapu City aims not only to gain an edge in industrial growth over its neighbors Mandaue and Cebu cities, but also to build a P10.29-billion “megaport town to connect the city to the global marketplace.”
The estimated project cost, however, is still based on the November 2006 prices of construction materials.
The Regional Development Council (RDC) has asked President Arroyo to withdraw her verbal approval of the project, because the City did not submit its feasibility study for the RDC’s endorsement.
But Assistant City Attorney Michael Dignos said that had they been allowed to present the MNRDP’s executive summary during the RDC emergency meeting last July, every council member would have realized “the feasibility and huge benefits” the project could give the province.
Magellan’s tower
The proposed 400-hectare reclamation will include a “megaport icon tower,” a replica of the Torre de Oro symbolizing the town of Sevilla, Spain, where the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan took off in his attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
Each year in April, Lapu-Lapu reenacts Magellan’s defeat in Mactan.
The on-site infrastructure will include roads, causeways, storm drainage, wastewater treatment plants, water lines, power distribution lines, telecommunication lines and an estate administration building.
The late Ernest Weigel Jr., who was mayor from 1992 to 2001, conceptualized it. Radaza said he now wants it implemented because of the need to create areas to enhance the city’s growth.
Lapu-Lapu City’s land area is 6,424 hectares. As of 2007, its population hit 292,530, according to the Population Commission. Its population has grown faster, at 4.03 percent, from 1990 to 2000, compared to 2.51 percent for the entire province and 2.18 percent for Central Visayas.
But Radaza said that despite high growth, the city’s population to land ratio is only half of the provincial average because large parcels of lands are occupied by the airport, industrial estates and recreation zones, limiting the land available for human settlement.
The Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) and the City have signed a memorandum of agreement that binds the PRA to provide technical assistance once the project is implemented.
Thirty percent of the 400 hectares will be set aside for roads, a flushing channel and open spaces. The remaining 280 hectares will be divided into four different land uses.
At least 92 hectares in the west coast, intended for an international port, will cost P3.39 billion to develop, according to the executive summary.
The development cost of 70 hectares for the economic zones’ expansion will be P2.66 billion. It will cost the City P2.7 billion to develop 78 hectares for the town and commercial center, and P1.59 billion to build the 40-hectare tourism belt.
Challenges
The project will be accessible by three causeways, one of which will connect the port area and industrial zone. One will be developed in Barangay Buaya, while the third is intended to lead to the open area near the Mactan Shrine.
A 12-meter arterial road will be constructed parallel to the Mactan Cebu International Airport runway, linking Barangays Buaya and Basak to the site.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the guest of honor in last April’s reenactment of the Battle of Mactan, asked officials to make sure the project doesn’t harm the marine environment.
Some RDC officials have expressed worry that the reclamation will constrict the Mactan Channel. Another challenge that awaits is the relocation of informal settlers from the coastline.
The area will have to be declared alienable through a presidential proclamation, before it can be implemented. According to the City’s projects, business operations can begin there by 2017.
PRA General Manager Andrea Domingo had said that if the project pushes through, the title will be in the name of the National Government, who will decide when to convey it to the City.
Dignos said if the City decides on a joint venture with a private developer, a Mactan North Reclamation Holding Corp. will be set up, with the City retaining 50 percent of shares.
The City will need 25,708,100 cubic meters of filling materials, which will cost P7.71 billion at P300 per cubic meter.
Problems in sourcing the filling materials were addressed, said Dignos, after the city secured an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Sept. 12, 2003 to extract sand and gravel along the Ipil River and the estuary bounded by Talibon, Trinidad and Bien Unido towns in Bohol Province.
Dignos said the project embodies the City’s ambition of becoming “the leading historic tropical island paradise and international gateway in the Pacific” by 2020.
