If only to finally resolve the continuing siltation of the Mahiga Creek, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama should allow Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella to talk with Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes in order for both cities to arrive at a common solution to the problem.
Despite Rama’s sunny disposition in last week’s meeting of Cebu mayors, Cortes was anything but cheery as he told media that the mayor broke their agreement not to disclose the plans of the two cities on handling the Mahiga Creek problem.
The Mandaue City mayor was disappointed with how Rama announced that he wanted the demolition of the footbridges linking both cities through the Mahiga Creek without having him explain his administration’s efforts in clearing the Mandaue City side of illegal settlers.
The meeting of the two mayors was set in the backdrop of last week’s forum held by the Mega Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB). Among the issues discussed was the need to build an integrated drainage and storm water management plan.
But until political rivalries and animosities are first set aside, any plans may just as well be a waste of public funds.
There is a feasibility study done for a Cebu City integrated drainage system in the mid-2000 that remains unimplemented. Now, Cebu City officials said this study needs to be updated which needs more money to fund it.
In the meantime, Metro Cebu officials like Rama and Cortes need to sit down or owing to the frosty atmosphere between the two, Labella should pick up the pace and talk with the Mandaue City government before they come down on the city slaughterhouse like a ton of hammers.
Speaking of the slaughterhouse, the Cebu City government should either install two wastewater treatment facilities or transfer it to another suitable location –definitely not beside a body of water.
And what’s the status of their meetings with commercial establishments that have encroached on the three-meter easement zone of the Mahiga Creek?
The settlers have largely been the focus of the clearing operations and they have so far meekly relocated to either the site provided by Mandaue City or lived with their relatives in Cebu City.
Mandaue City, to its credit, provided a relocation site to the settlers though it’s far from ideal given the muddy ground on which it stands.
The Rama administration’s plan for Mahiga Creek is far more ambitious but so far has consisted mostly of meetings and no settlement site for the settlers.
This is where Labella along with Rama’s trusted political lieutenant Jose Daluz III can coordinate efforts and rebuild ties that were strained by Rama’s ill-advised pronouncements.
A satisfactory resolution should be arrived at without one provoking the other. Rama has nothing to lose if he lets his vice mayor do the talking to Cortes.
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