THE Cebu Provincial Government has asked for justification from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on the change in the alignment of the Metro Cebu Expressway (MCE) project Segments 1, 2 and 3B after it was discovered that the road will now traverse more urbanized barangays from the City of Naga to Danao City.
During the second meeting she called this year on the issue Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia asked the DPWH to explain why there was no proper coordination regarding the realignment of the MCE project.
During the meeting, more violations were also uncovered by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7 and the Cebu Provincial Government in the construction of Segment 3A of the MCE project that posed safety hazards to motorists and residents of Barangay Cantao-an in Naga City.
During the first meeting last Feb. 7 at the Capitol, the Provincial Government ordered the halting of all civil works of the MCE project, saying that an environmental and safety study had to be conducted due to the risks and hazards posed by the recent landslide that occurred in barangays Inayagan and Cantao-an, Naga City back in October 2023.
MCE is a 56.9-kilometer highway that was intended to cut through the mountain ranges of Cebu, providing alternative routes to the cities of Naga in the south and Danao City as a north-south backbone highway, according to the DPWH 7.
In Thursday’s meeting, Garcia was also informed that MCE’s Segments 1, 2 and 3B are proposed to be funded through a public-private partnership (PPP) to create a toll expressway.
The DPWH PPP service department told the governor during the meeting that they are now undertaking a procurement process for the conduct of a feasibility study on whether the abovementioned segments are suitable for PPP.
However, when the governor asked regarding the realignment of the project, the DPWH PPP service said this was the result of an earlier feasibility study conducted in 2015.
Garcia expressed concerns that the 45 barangays from Naga City to Danao City that will be affected by the project would no longer have access to the expressway if it would become an exclusive road network for paying motorists.
The realignment has also resulted in more challenges in road right of way (RROW) acquisition, requiring more funding and may result in further delays due to opposition of the affected areas, Garcia said.
Infrastructure projects will have to be built to augment the project in terms of accessibility for the residents of the affected barangays, the governor added.
Barangay captains present at the meeting agreed with the governor and said the DPWH had failed to coordinate with them on the project’s realignment. They added that they were informed of the realignment only recently, as the expressway will now traverse the populous areas of their barangays, particularly in the lowlands, instead of the mountainside with fewer houses as presented in the original plan.
Garcia added that the proposed toll expressway will also be put side by side or parallel to a national highway.
She asked for a third meeting on March 15 to iron out the identified problems of the project.
Violations
Garcia told the DPWH 7 during Thursday’s meeting that the Provincial Government will not lift its cease and desist order (CDO) against the project if there is no solution to the safety and hazard concerns that arose in the MCE’s Segment 3A that suffered a landslide in October 2023.
Garcia said they had discovered another violation of the DPWH 7 and its contractor as they had not applied for a quarry permit in the excavation of the soil where the expressway was located.
The EMB 7 also discovered several violations aside from the lack of the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) or Certification of Non-Compliance (CNC) submitted by the DPWH 7 for the abovementioned portion. An ECC is a document issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that certifies that a proposed project has been reviewed and found to comply with environmental laws and regulations and that all management plans are in place.
During the meeting, DPWH 7 Director Ernesto Gregorio Jr. said Segment 3A has a six-lane road with a length of 4.2 kilometers that cost around P1.9 billion; however, the affected area of the landslide has a length of only 340 meters.
Engineer Mary Ann Bueno of EMB 7 said 1.7 kilometers of the total length has no approved ECC or CNC, so the EMB 7 has issued a notice of violation against DPWH 7. Another violation was the blockage of Cantao-an Creek due to a box culvert that was installed to be used as the road on top, which the law prohibits.
Garcia added that the CDO will be lifted only if the DPWH 7 addresses the violations it committed according to the EMB 7’s checklist.
With all these violations, Garcia emphasized the need for more rigorous study and transparency in informing the public and the local government units about the project’s possible effects, particularly in the areas where the soil quality made it prone to landslides.