No last laugh just yet

President Aquino was not expected to rule on the flyover controversy when he met the protagonists to the issue last Monday in Malacañang. It has long made sense for chief executives not to embroil themselves in local squabbles.

With no definite presidential intervention, it now appears it was too early for anyone to proclaim having the last laugh. Nobody can laugh just as yet, at whatever stage of laughter it may come.

My guess is that the flyovers — both the two being proposed — will eventually rise where they are intended, regardless of the opposition mounted by critics, and the prayers of nuns who never prayed as hard in public before when none of their properties were in danger.

I base my guess on the prevailing conditions. As Metro Cebu progresses and expands, it attracts more people who add their numbers to the natural population increases experienced by the locals. 

With the rise in human numbers will come a corresponding increase in the number of motor vehicles, all of which will be fighting for space in the existing road network that, sadly, cannot swiftly expand correspondingly.

Oh sure, there is talk of a masterplan involving complete urban development, talk that was largely responsible for stalling the flyover projects in the first place. But the problem with a masterplan, or any plan for that matter, is that it is what it is until you see it.

Right now the masterplan exists only in talk. Nothing has been drawn up completely enough as to be presentable to anyone who might listen and give it a try for implementation. But Metro Cebu does not keep still for even a day. It grows even as we talk.

By the time the masterplan is ready, it shall have been overtaken by anything, including unforeseen developments and miscalculated assumptions. The only masterplan that can work today, this day, is one that was developed and put into action 10 or even 20 years ago.

What masterplan you talk about now, this day, should not be intended to solve this December’s traffic jam or even 2012’s traffic scenario but the whole sheebang many years down the congested road. So, in the meantime, what do we do? Pray?

Do not misunderstand me. I have nothing against prayer. I do pray a lot in my silence. But as the religious shepherds who helped shape my faith told me a long time ago — God helps those who help themselves.

The flyovers are a way of helping ourselves. If critics can only have it in themselves to open their minds and their hearts, they will perhaps remember that nobody said the flyovers will solve our traffic problems once and for all.

They are but temporary remedies while the masterplan everyone is talking about is still taking shape. In fact, even the masterplan makers must admit they cannot project permanent solutions no matter how deeply their plans are projected into the future.

Aside from a masterplan, there is also that other proposal about constructing flared intersections instead of flyovers. I am tempted to agree, except that flared intersections do not work in this case.

An example of flared intersections that work has been cited — those at Cebu Business Park. One vital fact has been omitted, though. The flared intersections were put in right from the start when everything was still on the drawing boards, not as an afterthought.

Right now, in the areas where flyovers are being proposed, there is no room for an afterthought. There is only room for reality. And the reality is that something has to be done now. Today. And when we pray, let us pray for everyone’s interests, not just our properties.