Uy’s unsolicited bid for Cebu monorail sees partial operability by 2022 —presidential aide

The unsolicited bid to build a monorail transit system in Metro Cebu proposes that it would be partially operational by 2022, a presidential aide said.

In a statement, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino said that an "unsolicited proposal for monorail with the capacity of LRT (Light Rail Transit) [was] submitted to NEDA for approval and I am pushing for it so there will be partial operability by 2022."

The unsolicited bid, submitted by Davao businessman Dennis Uy's Udenna Corporation, proposes to build an P80-billion monorail system comprised of a 17-kilometer central line from Talisay City to Cebu City and a nine-kilometer line from Lapu-Lapu City to Cebu City.

In a speech during the Sinulog festivities in Cebu City over the weekend, President Rodrigo Duterte urged the city to build train systems and flyovers to deal with its transportation issues.

"Cebu is now a progressive city. The only problem here is your transportation...So find a way to fix that. You should follow Manila. You cannot expand anymore. And even if you—well except for trains. If you could make it a mass transportation, that would be better. Only few will be able to do that. But it’s either train or flyovers. Let’s focus on building flyovers instead," he said in a mixture of Cebuano and English that was translated by the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Uy was one of Duterte's major backers during his presidential bid.

"There is really no other way to solve traffic here but to go up and that is to build monorail with the capacity of a Light Rail Transit," Dino said in his statement.

What Duterte said "boosts our morale knowing that we have started working on the Integrated Intermodal Transport System (IITS) in Metro Cebu and the President agrees and even encourages it," he added.

Cebu, he said, needs an "honest to goodness" mass transport system that will be relevant for generations to come.

"For without it, Cebu’s development will not be sustained. I personally would like to thank the President for giving the Cebuanos an assurance that IITS will happen, even promising to help find the funds for it," Dino said. — BM, GMA News