CPA wants return of road, berthing area

THE Cebu Port Authority (CPA) has requested President Rodrigo Duterte to return the road and the berthing area at the back of the Malacañang sa Sugbo.

CPA General Manager Angelo Verdan said a member of the Cebu Port Commission, the policy-making body of CPA, brought their letter to newly appointed Cabinet Secretary Carlo Nograles to facilitate their request.

They want Nograles to forward the letter to the President, after the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas failed to do so.

Records showed that in 2005, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to vacate the building and converted it to the Malacañang sa Sugbo. For security reasons, the road and the berthing area at the back of the building were closed.

Verdan said the building has become a white elephant as this was not used by Arroyo or her successor former President Benigno Aquino III and incumbent President Duterte.

Besides, he said, the building, which was built in 1910, was damaged by the earthquake that struck Cebu in 2013.

Verdan said that under the law, the BOC owns the building, while the CPA is the owner of the road and the berthing area.

Then mayor Michael Rama had also requested Malacañang to entrust the building to the Cebu City Government so they could use it as a museum to no avail.

Verdan said if Malacañang returns the road and the berthing area to the CPA, all vehicles, including cargo trucks entering Gate 1 at Pier 1, won’t have to make a U-turn but will exit M.J. Cuenco Ave. instead.

“That will solve the heavy traffic at Pier 1 and the adjacent road facing Plaza Independencia,” he said.

As for the unused berthing area, he said it can accommodate four vessels at one time, which will decongest domestic base ports.

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