MPTC to link CCLEX and Cebu airport

March 8, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Pacific Group has committed to take part in constructing the Lapu-Lapu Expressway (LLEX) to ease travel between Cebu City and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

The Metro Pacific Tollways Vizmin Corp. (MPT Vizmin) will embark on another tollway project in Cebu, this time putting up LLEX, the complementary infrastructure to the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX).

MPT Vizmin entered into a memorandum of understanding with Premium Megastructures Inc. (PMI), Ulticon Builders Inc. and LLEX Corp. to assess and pursue LLEX.

Once completed, the project will offer motorists a quicker route between Cebu City and MCIA, the busiest airport in the Philippines next to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The LLEX will also help decongest the existing bridges linking Cebu City and Mactan Island.

The LLEX will scale up the carrying capacity of Cebu City’s existing road network. The tollway is expected to stimulate trade and tourism in the metro, boosting the local economy.

For the Metro Pacific Group, the LLEX will raise vehicle traffic in CCLEX, which is struggling to attract more motorists due to lack of direct access to the airport.

Under the agreement, the parties agreed to finish the technical, financial and legal studies that will be the basis for the final cost and alignment of the project.

Moreover, the memorandum requires the parties to resume negotiations on LLEX to firm up the terms and conditions of their partnership.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said his company wants to expand its infrastructure coverage in Cebu. He underscored the need to invest in new roads in the province to mitigate the traffic problem troubling Cebuanos.

“I promise that the roads we will lay down starting today will lead to progress. I promise that the journeys that the Cebuanos will take will not be too long, not too trafficky, distance not too great and your dreams not too far to achieve,” Pangilinan said.

MPTC is the parent of MPT Vizmin and CCLEX Corp., while PMI and Ulticon own LLEX Corp.

Aside from CCLEX and LLEX, MPTC has another interest in Cebu, the P90-billion Cebu-Bohol Bridge that would stretch between Cordova, Cebu and Olango in Bohol.