IN 45 DAYS, Bantayan town will have a new seawall and improved port, boosting tourism and trade in the area.
Mayor Arthur Despi announced Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, that work on the town’s “seawall Phase 2” has resumed and that the renovation of the seawall, which began on Jan. 3, would likely be completed in 45 days.
The move is part of the effort to make docking at the port in the area easier for boats coming in from islet barangays, the town announced on its Facebook page Friday, Feb. 4.
The project also involves the construction of stairs for disembarking passengers to use so that they would no longer have to step on rocks and risk injuring themselves to get to the wharf like they used to.
The funds for the renovation come from the Supplemental Budget of the local government.
Bantayan has 25 barangays, of which at least five are islet barangays.
Among these is Hilotongan, a favorite haunt of tourists going island-hopping.
The Philippines is reopening its doors to international tourism on Feb. 10, allowing the entry of fully vaccinated foreign travelers from non-visa required countries on presentation of a negative RT-PCR test taken within 48 hours prior to departure from the country of origin.
To prepare for the return of tourism, which has been badly battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Bantayan is also renovating its Bantayan Public Market.
Bantayan town is the center of business on Bantayan Island, which also hosts the towns of Madridejos and Sta. Fe. It is where tourists on the island go to eat and buy souvenirs, the reason the local government began work on the market’s transformation last Sept. 28.
Funding for the market renovation, which involves the setting up of a barbecue station, came from the Cebu Provincial Government, the municipality said in a separate Facebook post.
The project is targeted to be completed at the end of March.
For other infrastructure projects in the town, Despi is seeking investors to form public-private partnerships for the building of roads from farms to markets and ports, transportation options to facilitate the movement of goods and people, telecommunication facilities to improve digital connections and power infrastructure to ensure a more stable power supply for its growing economy.