I consider it as a personal privilege that I was able to work with former Bataan Congressman Felicito ‘Tong’ Payumo for few years at the board room of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA). He was easy to work with. He is knowledgeable and visionary. He came to. Ind when I run through an article detailing the Bataan-Cavite interlink bridge. When finished it will cost a whooping $3.6 billion.An ambitious project indeed.
As it was described, it will reduce travel time the present five to six hours to only five hours, skipping SCTEX and NLEX. In my many conversations with Tong Payumo, he preferred a tunnel road from Bataan to Metro Manila and it should be a fork road, meaning it will surface somewhere in the Mall of Asia area and a coastal town in Cavite. Methinks, let’s proceed on the interlink bridge and the tunnel road. And I hope they will be completed based on schedules unlike the many projects that I have been criticizing in this corner. It’s because whenever I see an unfinished infrastructure projects funded by the government, the late Aber Canlas come to mind.
The millenials certainly have no idea who is Aber Canlas but the seniors among us remember him as the hardworking public works official during his time serving as deputy minister of the Department of Public Works and Highways during the Ferdinand Marcos era. He was from Florida Blanca town here in Pampanga. He started as a foreman and rose from the ranks and became a member of Batasang Pambansa in early eightees, administrator of Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System ( MWSS) and was concurrently undersecretary of DPWH. May I suggest to the Florida Blanca government to honor him by naming a street after him. Please.
> We reporters covering him were amazed on his work ethics. He was result oriented. He pitched tents where an important project was commissioned. As a proof, he was tasked by then First Lady Imelda Marcos to construct a venue for the 1975 Miss Universe pageant. On record time he was able to finish the Folk Art theatre in 70 days. He reclaimed a portion of the Manila Bay and until now despite strong typhoons and earthquakes, the infrastructure is still standing erect. That building is a memorial to Canlas’ outstanding achievement as a world class engineer. Compared today’s public works projects which sometimes it takes a year, and sometimes more, to complete a few meters of flyover. Example is the flyover at the intersection of Porac and Angeles City. ( Ayon, tignan ninyo nakatiwangwang hindi natin alam kung kailan matatapos. Nagmumura araw araw ang mga motorista).
By the way, since that bridge on Apo road in Angeles City was completed the service road became too busy. Motorists were diverted into this narrow road since that two bit Paning bridge is still being under construction. When it will be finished nobody is telling kakapirasong tuloy , sobrang tagal gawin.