Former Pinoy Big Brother housemate Slater Young has transformed into quite the YouTube star, putting his engineering background to good use with all kinds of DIY (do-it-yourself) videos and construction factoids.
Naturally, in the sphere of influencers, he would seem best equipped to set the record straight on one of the country’s newest infrastructures: the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), an 8.9-kilometer bridge that will link Cebu City to the municipality of Cordova.
“Slater Young is really out here using his influence to fight misinformation (and) stop the spread of fake news. RESPECT,” user Hazel Ann Cesa wrote on her post that was shared 26,000 times as of writing.
The CCLEX has been the subject of fanfare mainly due to the fact that it will officially become the Philippines’ longest bridge when it opens to the public this month.
Social media has also attributed the completion of this feat to Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar and the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program — a misconception that Slater debunked in his video.
“A lot of people think that this is a government-built bridge, but this is actually built by Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation… so this is owned by a private company, and is built to last 100 years,” the Cebu-based engineer and content creator explained in the video’s 6:09 mark.
Slater went on to enthuse about the “beautifully built bridge,” saying that as a Cebuano, he was that a bridge of this scale existed on their home island, built by mostly Cebuano talent.
A fact-check report by VERA Files showed that Cebu news outlets reported on a proposal by Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) — aka the same company that operates NLEX, Cavitex, and SCTEX — to build a bridge linking Cebu City and Cordova in 2014, which was then under review by a joint venture selection committee between the two local government units.
In January 2016, an award notice was granted to MPTC “for the financing, design, construction, implementation, operation and maintenance” of the 8.25-kilometer Cebu-Cordova Bridge.
Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the 2016 presidential elections on May 9, and took his oath of office on June 30 of the same year. Villar took office as DPWH secretary in August 2016, while the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program was launched in April 2017.
Duterte attended the CCLEX’s groundbreaking ceremony in March 2017.
