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While construction for the bridge started under the Duterte administration, the project was approved and secured funding under Aquino’s term
Claim: The Panguil Bay Bridge, Mindanao’s longest sea-crossing bridge, is a project of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The TikTok video bearing the claim was posted on September 28 by an account with 12,400 followers. As of writing, it has 39,600 views, 4,108 likes, 2,479 comments, and 153 shares.
The video shows an image of the Panguil Bay Bridge with the caption: “Maraming salamat FPRRD. Taxes ng taong bayan ay nakikita” (Thank you former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte. The use of the public’s tax money is evident.)
The video was posted after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. inaugurated on September 27 the P8-billion Panguil Bay Bridge connecting Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental.
The bottom line: Construction of the Panguil Bay Bridge started under the Duterte administration, but plans for the project, including its financing, were already approved before Duterte took office as president in 2016.
Several fact-checking bodies, such as Mindanews and Vera Files, have debunked similar claims that miscredited the Duterte and Marcos administrations for starting the bridge project.
Funding for the project: The Panguil Bay Bridge project was approved for implementation in 2015 during the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III.
It was also under Aquino’s term that the Philippine government secured funding for the project. The loan agreement to finance its implementation was signed on April 28, 2016, with the Export-Import Bank of Korea-Economic Development Cooperation Fund — about two months before Duterte was inaugurated president on June 30, 2016.
In a 2016 news release, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) also said that discussions for the project began in 2014.
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Project credits: While the Panguil Bay Bridge was included in the Duterte administration’s Build Build Build (BBB) program, it was among the Aquino administration’s big-ticket infrastructure projects. The bridge project was folded into the BBB program when Duterte took office in 2016. (READ: Build, Build, Build: Mapping the Duterte administration’s infrastructure legacy)
Other projects that began under Aquino and continued under BBB include the Cavite-Laguna Expressway and the NLEX-SLEX Connector projects. (READ: [ANALYSIS] 10 Build, Build, Build projects that started before Duterte)
Rappler has already published several fact-checks debunking claims misattributing government projects to the Duterte and Marcos administrations:
Mindanao’s longest bridge: At 3.17 kilometers, the Panguil Bay bridge is Mindanao’s longest sea-crossing bridge. According to the DPWH, the new bridge slashes travel time between Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental from two-and-a-half hours to just seven minutes, providing travelers a direct route instead of circuitous land routes.
Actual construction of the bridge started in February 2020 but faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. – Kyle Marcelino/Rappler.com
Kyle Marcelino is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.
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