CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña lashed back at Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella on Monday, for blaming his administration on the worsening traffic situation along N. Bacalso Avenue in Barangay Mambaling.
Osmeña said it is easy for his political rivals to complain without actually doing anything to help address the problem.
Yesterday, Osmeña asked Labella what the latter has done to address certain problems of the city. He said Labella should help out instead of complain.
“Mr. Labella, what are you doing? You’ve been a government official for 15 years. Why don’t you help out? Am I supposed to do everything like figuring it out which roads to be widened?” he said.
To recall, Labella said the worsening traffic in the area could have been avoided if contingency plans were laid out ahead of the implementation of the multi-billion underpass project. He also said that the previous administration (of Michael Rama) suggested widening roads and developing alternate routes. These however, he said, were disregarded.
Labella even tagged Osmeña as the “father of the monster” referring to the monstrous traffic in the city’s southern corridor.
Osmeña said his administration is doing everything to come up with a concrete solution to the city’s traffic problem.
“We can always do that (road widening). Let him (Labella) work on that. There is PDP-Laban,” he said.
Labella is the president of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in Cebu City. PDP-Laban is the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Osmeña even advised Labella to ask the help of President Duterte.
“Just be fair. We are trying every means. We test and as we test, we are risking failure but we test anyway because one thing is for sure, if we don’t test anything, nothing will happen,” he said.
Osmeña said he does not mind taking part of the blame so long as Labella and his camp also come up with solutions.
He said he is always open to ideas.
“Unfair kaayo ba. I make mistakes too. Am I supposed to walk through all this? See where the traffic should be? We’ll just find ways. I am not God,” he said.
“The basic issue is they keep reacting. They don’t proact. They just keep reacting. You follow them, nothing will happen,” he added.