Boracay Bridge: A verbal deal, a two-word denial, and a broken process

Gov. Joen Miraflores came back from Ortigas beaming. Ramon Ang had said the words — no more bridge. Done. Victory. He even thanked the people of Aklan for making enough noise that one of the country’s most powerful businessmen blinked.

Then Ang told GMA News: “Not true.”

Two words. And suddenly, a PHP 7.78 billion project awarded to San Miguel Holdings Corp. through a DPWH notice of award on March 30 is right back where it started — legally intact, politically contested, and murkier than ever. What exactly was said in that May 13 meeting at San Miguel’s corporate headquarters in Ortigas remains between the two men and whoever else was at the table. But whatever it was, it wasn’t written down. And in infrastructure governance, a verbal declaration over lunch is worth exactly nothing.

The frustrating part is not that Ang denied it. It is that anyone was surprised. A 30-year PPP concession covering a 2.54-kilometer bridge, access road infrastructure, and facility hubs on both ends doesn’t get canceled the way you cancel lunch plans. The PPP Code requires stakeholder consultation and assessment of legal, technical, economic, financial, and environmental factors. Under Executive Order No. 138, all local PPP projects must be approved by the local sanggunian, with prior confirmation from the Local Development Council. None of that gets unwound in a private meeting, no matter who is in the room.

And here’s the thing: The Sangguniang Bayan of Malay had already passed a resolution of strong objection, and the Aklan Provincial Board approved its own resolution calling out the DPWH for awarding the project despite publicized opposition. President Marcos himself, during a lunch in Roxas City on April 27, expressed surprise that there had been no consultation and no resolution from Malay in support. His own DPWH secretary said in April that local concerns had to be resolved before the project moved forward. The process had already failed — publicly, on multiple levels — before Miraflores and Ang ever sat down.

Which brings us to what is really at stake for the people who’ve been fighting this from the beginning. The Aklan Provincial Board’s opposition resolution cited livelihood threats to over 40 regular employees, 414 boatmen under the Caticlan-Boracay Transport Multi-Purpose Cooperative, 2,200 family members, and a potential loss of over PHP 600 million in annual jetty port revenue. The cooperative invested in 48 fiberglass boats, each costing between PHP 8 million and PHP 10 million, totaling nearly PHP 500 million — money spent in good faith to comply with government modernization requirements, now potentially stranded if the bridge ever goes through.

We are not talking about abstractions here, as members currently earn between PHP 1,500 and PHP 2,800 per day. That’s real income for real families. The coalition that mobilized against this project — boatmen, church leaders, local officials, environmental groups — built something genuinely impressive. Aklan Bishop Cyril Villareal warned the bridge could push Boracay past its environmental carrying capacity. The local government removed the project from its Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Resolutions stacked up at every level. That’s not nothing.

But the danger of declaring victory on a verbal concession is that it gives everyone permission to go home. San Miguel has not withdrawn its legal claim. The DPWH notice of award still stands. The cooperative’s motorized bancas collectively generate an average daily income of PHP 960,000 — and all of that remains at risk until there is a formal, written, publicly communicated withdrawal of the project. Miraflores said he hopes Ang will formally communicate the company’s position to the DPWH. Hope is not a policy.

Meanwhile, Boracay generated PHP 47 billion in tourism-related revenues in 2025, with the local government targeting 2.6 million arrivals in 2026. The island matters enormously — economically, environmentally, symbolically. It deserves infrastructure decisions made through a process that holds up in daylight, not ones that unravel with a two-word text to a reporter.

The governor’s pivot — suggesting San Miguel focus instead on Caticlan Airport upgrades — is reasonable, and work there is already underway. But the bridge question does not disappear because everyone moves on to the next agenda item. Until San Miguel sends a formal letter to the DPWH, the project exists. Legally. Contractually. Quietly.

The people who made all that noise deserve better than a news conference announcement that the other side has not agreed to.