Regardless whether or not the Department of Transportation meets its 2020 deadline for finishing the first phase of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project or the Light Railway Transit (LRT) or both, the point is that they should do so without compromising public safety and work quality.
The phrase “Haste makes waste” rings loud and clear here and the DOTr only has itself to blame for agreeing to delay implementation of the BRT based on the unsubstantiated say-so of a technical expert whose LRT project in Manila didn’t even endure without necessitating expensive, multi-million peso repairs paid for by the country’s taxpayers.
If anything, the BRT delay and the promotion of the LRT was part of the overall strategy to claim credit by the administration in order to show to Filipinos or in this case the Cebuanos that they are doing something to improve not only mass transport infrastructure but the overall quality of life in the country.
Actual implementation of the BRT project was supposed to start either late in 2016 or last year but it was questioned and stalled by Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino who supported instead the LRT as the mass transport system of choice in Cebu.
A year’s worth of delaying tactics later and the BRT was included under the so-called “basket of solutions” by the DOTr for Metro Cebu when the BRT’s first phase could have been operational sometime this year.
And while proponents of the BRT like Cebu City Hall had been forthcoming and transparent in their dealings with DOTr on the project, close to nothing is known about the LRT being pursued in Cebu other than the detail that it will be set in some parts of Metro Cebu and that it may likely include a subway component.
There was no need for regional DOTr officials like the agency’s communications director Goddess Hope Libiran to remind Cebu City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete to “just support the project” since he wasn’t opposing it in the first place.
Villarete, an urban planning and policy expert, merely expressed his reservations on the target date for the completion of the first phase, a sentiment that will likely be shared by those objectively looking at the practical challenges faced by the contractors for the project.
This especially applies to the LRT whose facilities and equipment entail a lot more care and effort than the BRT and is thus not only more expensive but also more vulnerable to outside factors like quakes.
That said, we also hope for the sake of the riding public that the DOTr makes good on its promise to complete the first phase of the two projects to make it easier for them to commute to and from their homes, schools and offices.
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