Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes’ statement that he was “humbling himself” to meet counterparts in Cebu City to find a solution to the mad traffic that started in March shows how serious road congestion has affected his city.
Truck haulers and cargo owners have been howling. Motorists and commuters, in their sweat and rage, wonder who’s bright minds are at work in managing the impact of road concreting work of S. Osmeña Road.
What’s so difficult about having managers and elected leaders of two urban cities agree on a rerouting scheme?
It took Mayor Cortes to put his ego aside to put forth a suggestion from Mandaue’s planning office, a simple and elegant one, to ease the monstrous ve- hicle flow that is tying up main roads of Mandaue City even if the ongoing road rehabilitation of S. Osmena Road is on the Cebu City side.
For a few days, Mandaue City staffers were crying foul over the way one-way traffic on Ouano Avenue was not part of the original agreement hammered out in a coordination meeting with the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom).
A last-minute change was made that ignored a prior agreement to keep the flow two-way. In the end, it appeared that Mandaue was getting the short end of the deal.
Complaints of public inconvenience fell on deaf but it was the angry feedback of trucking companies and businessmen, who can’t get their goods delivered to the pier area and container port in Cebu City that was the last straw.
Hence, Tuesday evening’s meeting in Cebu City Hall.
Before stepping in, Mayor Cortes said he would rather talk with Vice Mayor Edgar Labella than the mayor. The subtext of that comment was Mayor Michael Rama’s earlier cold shoulder view: “Mandaue traffic is Mandaue’s concern. I have been removing islands. I don’t know what Mandaue has been doing.”
Fortunately both sides reached an agreement.
Logarta Street will be dedicated to one-way flow from Mandaue to Cebu City. Traffic heading north to Mandaue will take available lanes of S. Osmena Road.
Mandaue Mayor Cortes’ suggestion was upheld.
See how much can get done when the approach to an urban growth headache is a wholistic metropolis view rather than a self-centered one?
“Traffic does not acknowledge political boundaries. It is affecting Metro Cebu. Wala man ko makig-away, I am willing nga magpa-ubos (I’m not fighting anyone, I am willing to humble myself),” Cortes told reporters before the dialog.
Residents of both cities are thankful for that streak of wisdom and modesty which showed Cortes was indeed thinking of the good of everyone.
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