PGMA's legacy: Strong Republic Nautical Highway

BATANGAS CITY (PND) – The Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) is one of the legacies President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will leave the Filipino people when she steps down in June.

The disclosure was made by Oscar Sevilla, general manager of Philippine Ports Authority in Batangas City.

According to Sevilla, the SRNH links Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao via the western seaboard. It connects Manila to Dipolog City in Mindanao, Biliran in Leyte to Surigao City, and Bicol to Cagayan de Oro.

It is thus instrumental in spurring growth in the entire country.

Envisioned as the “highway of the sea,” the 919-kilometer (land) and 137-nautical mile (sea) seamless transport infrastructure network connects the huge consumer markets of Luzon to the agricultural production centers of Mindanao. It reduces the cost of travel by 37 percent to 43 percent for passengers and 24 percent to 34 percent for cargo, and the time of travel by 10 to 12 hours when compared by conventional air and sea travel.

Because of this, Sevilla said, passenger traffic in and around the islands have grown from 2.6-million in 2001 to 4.9-million in 2009.