IF elected governor, lawyer Winston Garcia wants the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) to appropriate P4 billion for the construction of a second runway to avoid air traffic in the future.
Garcia said this when asked about his three priorities once he becomes governor during the gubernatorial candidates’ forum organized by the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB) last Wednesday.
Republic Act 6958 or the MCIAA Charter designated the Cebu governor as the co-chair of the MCIAA Board.
Garcia said that attached to his number one priority is the appropriation of P500 million each for the improvement of the airports in Bantayan Island, Camotes Island, and the Municipalities of Medellin and Moalboal.
“I believe I can do it in three years’ time,” he said.
Garcia of One Cebu Party is challenging Gov. Hilario Davide III in the May 9 elections. Davide did not attend last
Wednesday’s forum.
His second priority is to ask the President to issue an executive order allowing the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to do the detailed engineering study for the first phase of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line from Talisay City to Mandaue City.
He said that a JICA Feasibility Study shows that the first phase of LRT will cost US$800 million.
“If that detailed engineering studies can be done in one year or one-and-a-half year, on the third year of my term as governor, we can already bid it out under the Public-Private Partnership program,” Garcia said.
His third priority is to enter into a joint venture agreement with the Philippine Reclamation Authority for the tourism estate in Cordova, the industrial estate from Talisay City to Carcar City, and the construction of a new international container port.
The new container port will be part of Tayud, Consolacion and Tayud, Liloan.
“These are my three top priorities and I will double my effort to implement these during the first three years of my term because we have to provide business and job opportunities to the Cebuanos,” Garcia said.