The Eastern Visayas region is in a virtual state of shock. Typhoons repeatedly cause havoc in our agriculture and fishing, adding to scarcity and high prices. That is in agriculture; then we turn to industry, and it is a mess, with a mothballed, non-operational copper smelter that caused the unemployment of at least 3,000 directly employed workers and 1,000 more indirectly employed workers
Then we have the worst stretch of the Maharlika Highway, with many kilometers almost impassable. To compound this, kilometer upon kilometer of roads are under repair on the Samar side, severely limiting speeds to only five kilometers per hour.
Then we have a bridge that needs serious rehabilitation and does not accommodate trucks or other heavy vehicles. It is a kind of bridge that is out of step with the times. And its supposed beauty is gone with all the shoring up underneath it. It looks like a bridge about to fall apart if the metal supports are removed. It is saying, "Don’t look at me now; at this time I cannot be one of the tourist attractions of Eastern Visayas."
The bridge has become a symbol of how the government's inaction in repairing it can create a regional economic bottleneck with a high cost in transporting goods and passengers. No less than President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said something like this when he graced the reopening of the operations of the bridge for buses on December 15, 2025. He pointed out that if the bridge had received proper maintenance, the government would not have needed a billion pesos to fix it.
Maybe no one told him that the DPWH had an annual budget of 150 million pesos for the maintenance of the bridge for many years now, and all the public saw was the repainting of the bridge. Where did most of the money go? This means that when the President reopened the bridge to two-way traffic, he was also in the vicinity of a project that could be the target of his anti-corruption campaign. He did not have to go far. It was right behind him. Constituting his awesome backdrop was the San Juanico Bridge in stilts, you would be afraid to cross it.
In agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, the struggle continues. Our over-dependence on coconut (70 percent of our croplands planted to coconut) exposes the region to low farm incomes, aging tree stock, price vulnerability, and limited downstream processing.
To overcome these challenges, the region can pursue coconut replanting and diversification, build more farm-to-market roads, invest in agro-processing, and improve the Department of Agriculture's capacity to implement its programs effectively. And there is so much more to do.
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