City Council okays monorail study

Can a monorail transport system effectively service Cebu City’s commuters?

This is what Philtram Transportation Consortium, Inc. wants to find out in a business case study it will soon conduct in partnership with Cebu City Hall.

The Cebu City Council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Tomas Osmeña to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Philtram for the study during their regular session last Tuesday.

Under the proposed MOU, Philtram will be partnering with CRRC Nanjing Puzhen, Co. Ltd. to conduct the study at no cost to the city.

While the council approved the signing of the MOU, they expressed concern over some of the other provisions under it.

Section 2.1 states that the city government should assign personnel as part of a technical working group (TWG) for coordination and to facilitate field works.

But Councilor Joy Pesquera wanted to delete this provision since she said the documents from the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) is public and can be accessed by anyone.

“If we assign personnel to them, it will be unwarranted benefit to the corporation,” she said.

In the end the council agreed that the city should just “render assistance” in terms of coordination.

Councilor Jose Daluz III said under the MOU, ownership of the study will be with Philtram and not with the city government.

Another provision also gives Philtram the right to terminate any or all activities related to the study at their own discretion.

“It’s a good opportunity but it’s a bit disadvantageous to the city as the city may not get the business case study after all,” Daluz said.

But Gabuya, who authored the resolution, said the results of the study will be specified to Cebu City and that it cannot be implemented elsewhere.

This prompted the council to hold a recess and they agreed to just approve the MOU and to authorize the mayor to sign it with Philtram’s chairman and president Domingo Peñaloza.