A look at Cebu's first tunnel. What next?

Last Wednesday the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM) Board held an ocular inspection of the Cebu South Coastal Road Tunnel Project that links the South District to the North District of Cebu City. This box-type tunnel runs under M. J. Cuenco Ave. linking the SRP to the Serging Osmeña Ave. and straight to the North Reclamation area. From my past experience as chairman of the Infrastructure Development Committee of the Regional Development Council (RDC), (where we had a hand on the construction of the Fernan Bridge) this project is close to 80% done.

There are only two remaining sections that needed to be closed, while most of the work is now focused on cementing the roadway. Project Manager Hikonari Maeda told me that the tunnel would already be passable by March and ready for its inauguration by April 2010. The other major projects that still need to be done are the generators for the lights and water pumps and ventilator sensors, which are vital for the operation of the tunnel. I would like to believe that this is the first ever tunnel project in the Philippines.

Walking inside the finished portion of the tunnel also made me realize that there should be a specialized group that ought to be in charge of maintaining the tunnel. Now whether this should be done by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) or the City of Cebu, it is up for them to decide. What is clear is that, there has to be an annual maintenance budget for this infrastructure facility so it can be maintained properly.

While we were in the finished section of the tunnel, it made me realize that no one has been talking about the 3rd link between the island of Mactan and the Cebu mainland. Traffic in the old and the Fernan Bridge has already begun to peak. So I dare say for the nth time, more so that we are now in the midst of an election campaign, we might ask the candidates who could be the next President of this country, whether they would give priority to the construction of another tunnel, preferably between the SRP and Cordova?

A tunnel is the perfect link to Cordova so that we would never shut down the inner Cebu Channel to international and domestic shipping. Also putting a link between mainland Cebu and Mactan Island in the south side of Cebu will certainly decongest Mandaue City where traffic has already become unbearable even with the presence of the two bridges there.

Best of all, putting an underwater tunnel link to Cordova from Cebu City would greatly increase the potential of Cordova to grow. Of course Mayor Ade Sitoy has to come up with an urban planning program with wide streets so when development comes to his town, they will be prepared for the onslaught of businesses that would certainly put Cordova on the map. When the time comes, I’m sure that Mayor Tommy Osmeña would make good his plan to run for Mayor of Cordova, which is just across downtown Cebu City.

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The Lakas-Kampi held its convention yesterday amidst the defection of Sen. Ralph Recto and Gov. Vilma Santos, who moved to the Liberal Party. But then, the Liberal Party (LP) suddenly lost former Sen. Serge Osmeña III. Fearing that they could result in other defections, the LP didn’t waste its time in naming Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña as LP Chair in Cebu. This incident once more tells us that political parties in this country is irrelevant!

Again this brings us to how useless our political parties have become. Just take a good look at the present crop of presidentiables: Gibo is the standard bearer for Lakas-KAMPI, but he really came from NPC while his teammate Edu came from the Liberal Party. Sen. Villar’s teammate Sen. Loren Legarda is also NPC and she’s running with the Nationalista Party. Then Sen. Ralph and Vilma Recto flew from Lakas-Kampi to the LP. For sure, we shall be seeing more political butterflies before the elections even begin.

What this country needs is the return to the tried and tested two-party system that we all saw during the US Presidential elections. It was truly transparent, seeing the Democrats slug it out against each other, especially when then Sen. Hillary Clinton fought against Sen. Barack Obama while Sen. John McCain had to slug it out with his Republican partymates. Then after the two political parties decided who their standard bearers would be, we also saw how the Democrats slug it out with the Republicans!

Well, we know that Pres. Barack Obama won in that Presidential race. What we saw from start to finish was true democracy at work. US politicians choosing their respective political parties based on their varied ideals and commitment to the people. Here we have a bunch of irresponsible politicians whose party commitment is summed by a “Me, Myself and I” campaign, using the name of the poor in vain to make politics a family business!

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