President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Zamboanga City on Thursday, December 2, to lead in the simultaneous inauguration of 143 social and tourism projects all over the country.
In his speech during the inauguration ceremony, Duterte described the projects as “milestones under the government’s Build, Build, Build program.”
“The completion of these projects will boost inclusive growth in various industries in our provinces especially for the shipping, fishing and tourism sectors,” the President said.
The social and tourism projects are part of 484 major seaport projects which have been completed from June 2016 up to the present.
The President led the inauguration of the Zamboanga City Seaport Development Project, a mammoth project which doubled the capacity of the Zamboanga port compared to 2015 standards.
The project includes the construction of a 2,115 square meter reinforced concrete platform, the expansion of the container yard and a 1,296 square meter extension of the local pier to accommodate more vessels.
The Philippine Ports Authority is currently constructing a multimillion peso passenger terminal touted to be the biggest passenger terminal in the entire country.
The terminal has a 4,500 passenger capacity, a big improvement from the 800 passenger capacity of the current terminal.
The two projects are among 27 seaport development projects located in region 9.
Among the projects are the Barangay Busay and Barangay Tumalutab port also inaugurated Thursday in Zamboanga City.
Of the 484 seaport projects in the entire country, 53 development projects are located in Luzon and 64 in the Visayas.