President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will lead on Friday the inauguration of the Panguil Bay Bridge project, which is expected to address connectivity challenges and stimulate economic and tourism activities in Northern Mindanao.

The P7.8-billion Panguil Bay Bridge is Mindanao’s longest sea-crossing bridge at 3.1 kilometers. It connects Tangub City in Misamis Occidental and Tubod town, Lanao del Norte.

The construction of the two-way, two-lane bridge connecting the two provinces started on February 28, 2020 and was completed this month.

Because of the project, land travel time from Ozamis/Tangub, Misamis Occidental to Tubod, Lanao del Norte will be reduced from more than two hours to only seven minutes.

It is also expected to improve the transport systems linking the region’s coastal areas and facilitate 24/7 mobility of people, goods and services, propelling economic growth in the surrounding areas.

The project is funded through a loan agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GOP) and the Korean Export-Import Bank (Korea Eximbank).

It is one of the 198 high-impact priority infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) under the administration’s “Build, Better, More” program. *|PND*