YAP
THE Cebu City government plans to conduct more forums to help the public understand the concept of the BRT or the Bus Rapid Transit, which is projected to be completed by 2019.
Lawyer Rafael Yap, project manager of the BRT, disclosed this in a text message to Cebu Daily News yesterday, when asked for a reaction about a nongovernment organization’s concern about the public not grasping the concept of the BRT in its social acceptability context.
“While majority of the Cebuanos know BRT, not everyone fully understands its concept,” said Yap, who agreed with the statement of engineer Paula Fernandez, executive director of Pagtambayayong, a foundation for mutual aid, during a press briefing at the Cebu Summit on the Environment yesterday.
“For us, social acceptability means prevention of miscommunication, misunderstanding and misrepresentation by unauthorized persons,” Yap added.
When asked for the number of families and individuals that might be affected by the project, Yap said he had no estimates yet since they had not finished collecting the necessary data.
Pagtambayayong, however, is helping the city government in its campaign for more public awareness of the BRT project, which already has an approved budget of $141 million.
Fernandez said that the context of social acceptability of the project focuses more on how popular the concept of the BRT is among the citizens.
“It’s for them to have a complete grasp of what is the BRT,” she said in Cebuano.
She claimed that Pagtambayayong has conducted a series of activities including consultations among the homeowners, who would most likely be affected by this project.
Fernandez said that a plan for livelihood projects for the affected public utility jeepney (PUJ) drivers should be a major consideration because they would be the group most affected.
The dispossessed PUJ drivers would have priority to apply as BRT drivers once the project would be completed and implemented, she said.
The budget for the BRT project, approved by outgoing President Benigno Aquino III, is from a World Bank loan of $116 million and a $25-million loan from Clean Technology Fund.
Yap said that BRT bidding for the initial construction packages would likely be done within this year.
He said that the target for the completion of the project would be for 2019./UP Intern Amy Macalinao