Duterte, DOTr urged: Rescue BRT project to save funds

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu City North District Representative Raul del Mar has appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to rescue the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and for the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to speed up its implementation.

“May the President include the Cebu BRT project among the things he would like to see finally done,” Del Mar said.

Del Mar’s request was prompted by the recent report of the Commission on Audit to the Office of the President highlighting the over P29 million in wasted funds due to the delay of the project.

According to COA, the government has already incurred P29.48 million in accumulated commitment fees from 2015 to 2019 because of the late implementation of the project.

These are charges on undisbursed balances of the P16-billion loan which began to pile up since the agreement took effect on December 3, 2014.

“The Department of Transportation (DOTr), implementing agency of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project, had already failed at least twice to meet deadlines for its initial operation,” noted Del Mar.

The first phase was supposed to start in October 2016 and was targeted to be partially operational by December 2021. The Phase 1 is from Cebu South Bus Terminal to the Capitol.

“Except for the CiBus system, precursor service of the bus component of the project, which was launched March this year, the Cebu BRT has not picked up speed to end and compensate for the serial delays,” Del Mar lamented.

DOTr’s failure to procure the needed consultancy services and civil works were pointed to as the major causes if the delay.

“DOTr most likely will add to the heap of reasons the continuing pandemic, but then under the revised schedule the BRT was supposed to be up and running already in the first quarter of this year, before the outbreak of the plague,” Del Mar said stressing the possibility of DOTr using the pandemic as another excuse of the delay.

Del Mar said he has seen how the residents in his district have long been enduring the traffic problem. He said the agency should push the project to start to avoid further waste of public funds.

“I appeal to the Department of Transportation and officials of NEDA (National Economic Development Authority), which oversees these projects funded by the World Bank and Agence Francaise de Developpement, to push the Cebu BRT project from where it has been stuck -- on the slow bureaucratic lane,” Del Mar said. — FPL (FREEMAN)