CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY(August 22) — The proposed P34-billion extension of the Cagayan de Oro Coastal Road is getting a push for foreign financing as the government seeks to speed up a project seen as critical to easing traffic and strengthening the city’s role as Mindanao’s gateway.
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon said Friday the agency would explore funding from Japan, whose investments in Mindanao could open opportunities for broader infrastructure cooperation.
The move comes as the DPWH acknowledges that the coastal road would be difficult to complete quickly through regular government appropriations alone.
“We will now look for foreign funding for this. If we rely only on local funds, we cannot finish this quickly and properly,” Dizon said after inspecting the project area Thursday with local officials and government agencies.
For now, the DPWH has secured P600 million for the coastal road, including P220 million recently released, primarily to complete an ongoing bridge component.
But the much larger challenge is funding the road extension itself, which carries an estimated price tag of P34 billion.
Three projects, one traffic problem
The coastal road is among three projects the DPWH has identified as priorities for CDO following closer coordination with local officials.
Dizon said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had instructed the agency to align its infrastructure program more closely with priorities identified by local governments.
The second priority is the Eastern Interior Road, which requires about P7 billion. The DPWH plans to provide an additional P1 billion in 2027, which Dizon described as the agency’s biggest allocation so far for the project.
The government will continue looking for funding while coordinating with local governments to secure the right-of-way.
The road is expected to provide another route for motorists and help relieve traffic pressure on CDO’s existing road network.
The third priority, the Makabalan-Bonbon Bridge, is already nearing completion.
“We will fund that and finish that by early next year,” Dizon said.
Gateway needs better links
For CDO, the projects are more than individual road and bridge improvements. They form part of a broader effort to strengthen connections in a city that serves as a major transport and economic gateway to Northern Mindanao and the rest of the island.
Dizon said the national government was placing greater attention on the region because of CDO’s strategic role in connecting Mindanao with other parts of the country and international markets.
“The President asked me to come here and really prioritize Northern Mindanao, especially Cagayan de Oro, because this is the gateway of the rest of the country to Mindanao and other countries to Mindanao,” he said.
The proposed coastal road extension, however, now faces a familiar infrastructure hurdle: how to finance a project whose scale goes far beyond the government’s available local funding.
The DPWH’s planned appeal to Japan could determine how quickly the long-term road network envisioned for CDO moves from plans and partial construction to completion.
