Consolacion mayor Teresa Alegado wants MyBus to include her town in its routes. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
CONSOLACION Mayor Teresa Alegado is currently in talks with SM management to allow MyBus units to carry passengers up to her town.
She said this would alleviate the difficulty of students and employees from her town who have to secure a ride to school or work in Cebu City.
“We haven’t formally sat down for the matter. I told them to provide me with an agreement. I will also study this. I hope this will be a win-win situation,” she said during a candidates’ forum at the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.-Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center (EADSC) yesterday.
She said that she saw many “unutilized” MyBus units parked at SM City Cebu and thought that these could be used to ply the Consolacion route.
MyBus is operated by the Metro Rapid Transit System Inc., (MRTSI), a joint venture of SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Jam Transport.
Alegado said she requested that talks on further details resume after local and national polls as to not attract malicious interpretations. The mayor is running for reelection under the Liberal Party (LP).
MyBus currently offers trips from Talisay City to SM Seaside City Cebu and up to Mandaue. Fare rates range from P25 to P75 depending on distance.
The mayor said she would like the units to ferry passengers up to SM Consolacion as well.
PLANS
She added that her long-term plans include having a municipal-owned and operated transport service to reinforce existing public utility vehicles in the town.
Another is to invite private schools to set up extension services in the town to provide more educational opportunities to students and to push for the conversion of the Consolacion College into a state college.
“My people would not need to move to other places and this is one way of solving traffic problems in our area,” said Alegado.
She said she also intends to open additional roads that would address the worst-case traffic congestion in the area.
CORDOVA
Provincial Board Member Arleigh Sitoy, who is running for mayor in Cordova town under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-LABAN) meanwhile vowed to ban massive and unregulated fishing as well as unregulated reclamation projects and infrastructure development in Cordova, a coastal town on Mactan Island.
The forum, initiated by the Mega Cebu platform, sought to give candidates from towns and cities in Metro Cebu to present their platforms of government to the public.
Sitoy said he sees a surge in population due to migration brought about by development in the coastal town. He said that they have migrants from as far as Bacolod City.
“There are a number of people who just come over to Cordova, settle anywhere, squat everywhere,” he said, adding that the social costs of migrants include cyber sex and prostitution.