STILL A NO GO

Osmeña firm on decision not to allow Ironman bike route in SRP

There is no one, including the governor, who can change his mind.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña maintained that he will not bend to anyone’s request to allow the 90-kilometer bike phase of the Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships to pass through the Cebu South Coastal Road (CSCR) at the South Road Properties (SRP).

Osmeña reiterated that he cannot let his constituents in the southern part of the city suffer from traffic congestion from the CSCR closure because of the race.

“We have very simple principle in a democracy: Majority rules, but the minority has rights. I would not let people of Pardo suffer because of them [Ironman participants]. Sorry,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said that his decision is already firm and not even Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III will be able to talk him out of it.

“No, he’s not the minority and I am protecting the rights of the minority,” Osmeña said. “This is a hard decision, but the people of Cebu have suffered much.”

Cebu province earlier proposed an alternative route, which is to use the northern route.

Survey

But Liloan town Mayor Christina Garcia-Frasco, like Osmeña, is also concerned on the traffic congestion that can affect her constituents.

Garcia-Frasco requested the Liloan Traffic Commission to conduct a survey on the traffic demographics if the North Coastal Road and the National Highway will be closed for eight hours.

The survey conducted from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. last Sunday, the time which the organizers proposed to close the two roads, found that, on average, there are 27,671 vehicles that will ply those northern roads. The number includes private and public vehicles, trucks and motorcycles.

Within those eight hours, Garcia-Frasco said that the traffic team recorded at least 45 emergency vehicles using the north roads.

“I have a responsibility to the people of Liloan. That is my duty and obligation,” she said.

Garcia-Frasco sympathizes with the organizers, which is why she urged Davide to ask Osmeña to reconsider his decision.

“We are appealing to Governor Junjun Davide to request Mayor Tomas Osmeña to reconsider, and to allow the use of SRP for Ironman,” Frasco said on a Facebook post.
Davide is currently on leave and is expected to return today.