Development Inception The "Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway Bridge" was part of a large bundle of high-visibility foreign-loan-funded infrastructure launched by then-
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos' administration during the
1969 presidential election campaign. At the time the project was conceived, there was not yet much traffic between the islands of
Leyte and
Samar because they were relatively underdeveloped, which was acquired through
Official Development Assistance loans from Japan's Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency (OTCA), the predecessor of today's
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Contract awarding Through the Ministry of Public Highways, the Philippine government contracted the San Juanico Bridge project to the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP; now the
Philippine National Construction Corporation), a company founded by close Marcos associate
Rodolfo Cuenca.
Construction Construction of the bridge commenced during 1969 presidential campaign. It was finally completed four years later, in 1973, and was inaugurated on 2 July, coinciding with the birthday of then-
First Lady Imelda Marcos, a native of Leyte. The bridge's design reflected the aesthetic of other infrastructure projects associated with what has been called the Marcoses' "
edifice complex"
Post-construction According to former
National Economic and Development Authority deputy director Ruperto Alonzo, the project was initially criticised as a
white elephant that was "a possession that is useless and expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of", In the years after the bridge's construction, economic activity in Samar and Leyte has finally caught up with the bridge's intended function, and has become an iconic tourist attraction. but was quickly repaired and reopened within the month. The Samar provincial government proposed a project to install
LED lights in the bridge, with timed lighting effects for select occasions as an effort to boost tourism between Leyte and Samar islands. The project dubbed as the San Juanico Bridge Lighting Project was approved by the
Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority in January 2018. The implementation of the lighting project has experienced delays. The groundbreaking for the project took place on 26 July 2019, with completion projected for December 2019 or January 2020. The completion of the project however has been delayed. The bridge was successfully lit up for the first time on 20 October 2022. In May 2025, the DPWH imposed a 3-ton axle load limit on the San Juanico Bridge due to structural concerns.
RORO routes were used as alternatives. Pedestrians were banned from crossing the bridge and would be ferried by light vehicles instead. The partial closure prompted the declaration of states of emergency in
Samar Province on May 20 and in
Tacloban on May 29, and fuel shortages in parts of
Samar Island. On May 21,
Department of Public Works and Highways secretary
Manuel Bonoan announced plans to build a longer bridge measuring 2.6 kilometers near the San Juanico Bridge that would be funded through official development assistance from Japan. The
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council estimated that repairs on the bridge would cost approximately P7 billion, while monthly economic losses from its partial closure could reach up to P600 million. On June 5, President
Bongbong Marcos declared a state of calamity in
Eastern Visayas due to the repairs. The bridge was reopened to vehicles with a weight not exceeding 15 tons in December 2025. ==Features==