Traffic losses

A traffic study done by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) detailing how Metro Cebu sustained daily economic losses amounting to P1.1 billion due to poorly planned infrastructure projects may convince some Cebu City officials and the Regional Development Council (RDC).

But try telling that to local officials who will insist and lobby for the implementation of their pet projects to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Congress which holds the purse strings.

The traffic study detailed how the projects had caused heavy traffic congestion that slowed down productivity and cost businesses affected by the ongoing underpass project at Natalio Bacalso Avenue.

Another underpass project with flyover is scheduled for implementation at the United Nations Avenue in Mandaue City, but the question remains on whether or not the RDC can force the DPWH through court action to suspend the project while setting up the alternative roads and road flaring intersections that they required prior to implementing the project.

For that is the heart of the RDC argument to suspend the underpass project at Natalio Bacalso Avenue, the United Nations underpass project and future underpass projects planned by Rep. Raul del Mar of Cebu City’s north district; the necessity to sequence the groundwork prior to implementing the project as opposed to just pouring in billions of pesos worth of funds — which is par for the course for any project in the country and a substantial chunk of which ends up in the pockets of elected public officials and their minions — without so much as instituting safety nets to cushion the effects of the project’s implementation.

At least that’s how they present their argument to the public while Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña sees it differently as he alleged that the opposition to the underpass project is yet another handiwork of Presidential Assistant to the Visayas Michael Dino whose friends happen to sit in sensitive positions in the RDC.

It is also no small coincidence that among those in the Jica team that conducted the traffic study was traffic expert Rene Santiago, one of the architects of the ailing Manila Light Railway Transit (LRT) system, whose assessment that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is not suited to Cebu City served as basis for Dino’s lobbying efforts to have the BRT replaced with a subway LRT project.

Given that there is poor planning on DPWH’s part to implement the project — and for this the agency should bear the brunt of public condemnation since they are the lead agency — would suspending these projects or canceling them altogether be the solution to resolving Metro Cebu’s monster traffic congestion?

Doing so will mean a costly return to the drawing board and more months spent for feasibility studies that should have been used to finish previously planned projects.