An apology from Atty. Tony Oposa

Our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky brings you a discussion on Barrier Free Tourism with Persons with Disabilities (PWD) and the Elderly. If you looked at the demography of the people who take a cruise on cruise ships, the majority of them are retired, elderly people, except for the young ones who take the cruise for their honeymoon. This gives you an idea that if we transformed our tourism facilities and make it disabled friendly, you can bet that more tourists would come to your place.

Our guests tonight who will talk about Barrier Free Tourism is my own sister, Adela Avila-Kono, who is Cebu’s foremost accessibility specialist and an officer of the Organization of Rehabilitation Agencies (ORA) and the Regional Council on Disability Affairs. We also have Mrs. Jovita Polloso, General Manager of the Ayala Center and Dr. Amparo Florida, Founder and President of the Golden Center Cebu. The Ayala Center today has become one of the most accessible places in Cebu, thus it allows people with disabilities to go out of their house when in the past persons with disabilities are kept at home.

How times have changed indeed… because many buildings are now accessible just like most of the buildings in the western world, more disabled people, including the elderly can go places. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15th at 8:00pm tonight.

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I got a call from my good friend, environmental lawyer Atty. Antonio Oposa, who felt bad that he was the subject of a scything media attacks because of the Road Revolution that he conceptualized and tried to bring to Cebu. Tony reacted to my article as someone sent it to him where I pointed out that I did not accept the apology of his man Vince Cinches because Atty. Oposa is the mastermind behind this caper. So he called me to say that he already made an apology that he sent to Cebu Daily News. But apparently that did not come out as I wasn’t able to read the paper last week.

Unfortunately, his apology came with a long dissertation of his vision for Cebu City, where he believes that the solution to our traffic congestion is not through the use of motor vehicles as there is not enough space for cars, which get 99% of the roads, while 95% of the people are shut out and cannot even walk on a decent sidewalk.

As I said before, I believe something should be worked out to solve this problem, but Tony Oposa’s Road Revolution in closing the streets is something I don’t agree with simply because people have to work and go to places they need to do and should not be disturbed. I told Tony that he ought to go to Congress and address the situation where the National Building Code allows for very narrow sidewalks, which gets worse when our politicians allow vending on those sidewalks. 

Anyway, I’m writing on this issue once more because I promised Atty. Oposa that I would print his apology. So here is his personal apology that he emailed to me.

“I left that same evening of September 24 for Manila and have since been traveling. I have, however, been told that the activity caused inconvenience among the commuters during the 120hour closure of a small part of the Colon and two other heritage roads. To them, I personally and sincerely apologize. Being caught in a traffic jam is one of the worst ways to spend one’s time. It is also very unhealthy. But it is the state of our traffic condition, varying only in degree and intensity.

I have conveyed my personal apologies through our co-workers in Cebu during the press conference they held last Tuesday, 27 September. I could not join them on that day because it was the height of Typhoon Pedring here in Manila where I live. However, being the face and the name behind the movement, and as the person who introduced the initiative, I feel that I must personally apologize to those who suffered inconvenience. Please be assured that we too feel your sense of frustration at the ever-worsening traffic condition in Cebu City, and in the whole country.”

Okay Tony, apology accepted! It is thus unfortunate that something good that he has conceptualized ended up in such a mess. This is due to poor planning, not prior notice nor any publicity of what he intends to do about his advocacy. There is no doubt that all of us want lesser traffic. But then removing physical structures will cost time and a huge amount of money.

What we ought to do first is fix whatever is wrong with CITOM under whose leadership seems to be coasting along without any vision. I have already said it before that Cebu City is no longer an 8:00am to 5:00pm city. With the opening of the AsiaTown IT Park, Cebu City has become a “City that never sleeps.” But CITOM’s budget has not changed since my time. They are still in 8:00am to 5:00pm mode. Until they change their plans and budgets and add more personnel, traffic will always be bad in Cebu City.

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