VOL. 10 ISSUE 236 • THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018
P 15.00 • 20 PAGES
www.edgedavao.net
EDGEDAVAO Serving a seamless society
UP TO THE TASK. Task Force Davao personnel secure the area and the injured victims after the “terrorists” detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) and took some hostages at the Abreeza mall in an “attack” that is part of the Southern Storm anti-terrorism drill on Wednesday. Lean Daval Jr
SASA PORT Dabawenyos urged to lobby for modernization
D
AVAO businessmen are now being urged to lobby for the continuation of the Sasa Port modernization project of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) which was discontinued due to the opposition of Dabawenyos who were scandalized by what they alleged to be a highly overpriced project under the past Aquino administration.
The opposition then, led by the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., was anchored on the fact that the cost of the project earlier estimated by PPA planners to be only about P4 billion was bloated to P18 billion
towards the end of the Benigno S. Aquino III administration and the approaching 2016 presidential elections. The DCCCII held a series of public discussions on the controversy and invited high former of�icials of the
Department of Transportation and Communication headed by then secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to answer questions about the controversial project. Abaya was then the president of the Liberal Party supporting Mar Roxas for president. Current Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia con�irmed that the Duterte administration has no immediate plan of reviving the project during a speech he made in the general membership assembly of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mindanao at the Marco Polo Hotel last month.
In answer to a question posed by Ferdinand Maranion, a leading Davao exporters and president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. Davao chapter, Pernia said there is no immediate plan to modernize the Sasa Port. Maranion asked Pernia why the Sasa Port was not part of Pernia’s presentation of big ticket projects of the current administration in Mindanao, which included airports, the Mindanao railway, roads and bridges worth hundreds of billions of pesos. “There is a story behind
SASA,P11
Simex launching deemed successful
By ANGIE SAVERON
In partnership with the city government of Davao City, an anti-terrorism and crisis management drill at the Abreeza-Ayala Malls
A1
was launched. More or less 10 government agencies and private business sectors participated in the exercise
SIMEX,P11
Shrimps R Us