EDITORIAL - Testing the will and charm of Gwen

Metro Cebu has now been officially expanded, in accordance with a resolution approved by the Regional Development Council. Hence, the urban sprawl we call Metro Cebu will now go all the way to Danao City in the north and to the municipality of Carcar in the south.

In all, Metro Cebu will comprise five cities (Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Danao) and eight municipalities (Minglanilla, Naga, San Fernando, Carcar, Cordova, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela).

In a related resolution, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia was named chairwoman of the Metro Cebu Development Council, and her immediate plan is to address the worsening traffic congestion within this enlarged urban sprawl.

Part of that plan is to coordinate traffic management over the entire area, but more importantly in the inner urban sprawl that is the immense and contiguous four-city expanse involving the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.

Such a task is awesome and daunting and Garcia can find great help in this particular endeavor from a pending bill in Congress authored by Rep. Raul del Mar which seeks to create a Metro Cebu Traffic Authority.

Aside from being armed with the legal machinery to move things and make the initiative work, Garcia will also have to dig real deep into her pocket for those tiny keys to goodwill that she needs just as essentially.

For there are huge boulders of potential resistance that block her way. For instance, any attempt to integrate traffic systems within the four-city expanse will have to take into consideration more than just the infrastructure.

Indeed, the infrastucture may be the least of Garcia's traffic worries. Of potential greater concern will be the underlying political currents that, even now, continue to send out highly charged electric-like shocks.

For instance, can Garcia find a way to integrate the traffic systems of neighboring Cebu and Talisay cities without bringing into play the political animosities that have divided the officials of both cities? This alone will prove to be a real test for the governor.