Mayor Michael Rama (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday held on to his complaint that the city was left out of infrastructure projects from the national government.
He continued his lament even after President Aquino reported that half of the infrastructure budget for Region 7 since his term began in 2010 went to Cebu, with Cebu City getting P5.8 billion in roads and flood control.
“Cebu is Cebu. Cebu City is Cebu City. Since 2010, cite a major project of the national government,” Rama told reporters a day after Aquino’s visit in Cebu City for a Liberal Party rally in the Cebu Coliseum.
Rama didn’t mention, the P10-billion Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) which was approved last year by the national government and the World Bank, a project that aims to transform public transportation through exclusive bus lanes in Cebu City.
APEC
Rama, who is supporting Vice President Jejomar Binay for the presidency in 2016, said Cebu City didn’t get any financial assistance from the national government in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings.
Most of the 100 APEC meetings are taking place in hotels in Cebu City.
Rama said he would have wanted the national government to spend for improvement of the city’s traffic signal system and to speed up the widening of the Banilad-Talamban road.
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“We have no choice but to tell everybody to make the best of things happen for APEC…It’s supposedly the job of DPWH (to identify APEC-related projects for Cebu City),” Rama added.
“When APEC came, I thought we would be a beneficiary. But after two meetings DPWH was reporting, zero for Cebu City in connection with APEC,” he said.
Rama pointed out that in contrast, Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City got “millions” in projects.
President Aquino, during his Cebu visit, inspected the P290 million road concreting of S. Osmeña Boulevard Port Corridor in Cebu City which was completed in May.
But Rama said this national road was not intended for APEC.
Since last year, Rama has been visiting the office of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Rogelio Singson to ask for infrastructure projects to help the city prepare for the APEC meetings.
Rama said he was told by Singson that DPWH would allocate P400 million for the city under its convergence program with the Department of Tourism to improve roads leading to tourism sites in the city.
Rama said he was told a few months later that only P125 million was approved and that projects were implemented last year.
During his Cebu visit on Monday, President Aquino addressed the criticism that Cebu wasn’t getting enough attention from the national government.
In a briefing at the DPWH -7, he showed a breakdown of budgets and projects for Cebu and the region.
“We’ve appropriated over P22.848 billion worth of infrastructure projects for Cebu since 2011 until present. Is this what they call not giving enough attention to Cebu?” Aquino said.
He commented in Filipino that “people who don’t see what’s happening and don’t read the data need a new pair of eyeglasses” or prefer to play blind.
Faster travel
Secretary Singson, in a project briefing, said that about half of the entire P42 billion, or P23 billion, budget for Central Visayas from 2010 to 2015 went to Cebu. Of this amount, Cebu City got P5.8 billion worth of road and drainage projects, the biggest among the seven DPWH engineering districts in Cebu.
Vice President Binay earlier chided the Aquino administration for not giving enough attention to Cebu, which only ranked third in competitiveness in a recent survey among provinces.
President Aquino viewed the ongoing 28-kilometer Mactan Circumferential Road project worth P643.73 million and the 2.5-kilometer S. Osmeña road concreting project which has been completed.
“The benefit of this: faster travel going to the ports here in Cebu and the trips there of around 9,000 Filipinos everyday has become easier,” Aquino said on the S. Osmeña Road project.
He said the Mactan circumferential road cuts travel time from the Mactan airport to tourism sites from one-and-a-half hours to one hour.