🇵🇭 TACLOBAN • San Juanico Bridge and the Philippines' Long Battle Against Corruption

"I hope that our long struggle against corruption won't be as long as San Juanico Bridge."

There is a chain of islands, and you don't need to hop from one island to another using ferry or boats because an epic structure has been constructed to make island hopping possible by land travel. Yes, you can using the the longest bridge in the Philippines which is the San Juanico Bridge connecting two major islands -- Leyte and Samar. 

Maps by Wikipedia

Location Highlighted in Red

From above there are beautiful mountain ranges, deep-blue lagoon, lush islands and charming coves that exist at the San Juanico Strait, a narrow body of water that separates the islands of Samar and Leyte.

At the middle of that body of water is a narrow strip of silver-colored structure. It looks short from up above but hey! This is the Philippines' longest bridge when you are down! I had this feeling in me that the Philippines was rich before (?) because we were able to create a big structure like this that those times, South Korea,  Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia can hardly make! It is just so disgusting today that as this long bridge signaled a powerful economy during the time of Marcos, it now serves as a reminder of our loooong struggle against corruption. 

I will not say that during Marcos' time, there was no corruption but at least, the Philippines was able enough to build a long bridge that used to be "rare" in Asia during those decades.

Now, I was just seeing a concrete testament of a once-vibrant-economy -- San Juanico Bridge, a very historical landmark. It was an economic milestone but today, just serve as a lasting memory of what was "good" and "wealthy" from the past.

I hope that our long struggle against corruption won't be as long as San Juanico Bridge. We need immediate changes because today, this bridge is just considered to be a short bridge in Asia because our neighbors have built bridges twice and thrice as long as our so called "longest bridge" which remind us that our neighbors have gone too far!