A jubilee celebration for Queen Elizabeth II

Last Sunday evening we were tuned on satellite TV via Cable Network News (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) to watch the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II and indeed, only the British could pull such regal and colorful pageantry complete with Royal Trumpeters greeting the Queen especially as the Royal Barge brought the Queen and Prince Philip to the Thames River to witness the thousand ship flotilla that honored the Queen’s Jubilee year.

Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne of England for 60 years. I was only a year old when she assumed the British Throne and we have not known of any British monarch since. But at least her monarchy was a very stable one although the Union Jack no longer flies where the sun never sets.

One note that I took notice was when the BBC came up with a short special on the HMS Britannia, the Royal Yacht of Queen Elizabeth, which has been decommissioned since 1997 because of England’s financial problems at that time. It was a time when luxury was part and parcel of royalty. However even the English Monarchy embraced austerity measures and got rid of the Royal Yacht.

This should be a reminder to Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III that it is time for the Philippines to get rid of the Presidential Yacht RPS Ang Pangulo because we are still a 3rd world country and the so-called servant of the people should never be seen as having a presidential yacht. Let’s hope PNoy gets our message and order the Philippine Navy to use the yacht perhaps as a command and communications ship.

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Incidentally, last Sunday afternoon, I took my Harley for a short spin through the South Road Properties (SRP) as I really do not pass this road unless I go to the south. It was then that I finally realized that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has started to repave this broken road. I was still chairman of the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM) when we officially opened the SRP Roadway, I think it was sometime in 2004. So this roadway has been in use for at least 8 years already and in so short a time, the roadway is already broken.

The SRP roadway was one roadway that was hastily constructed so it could be finished within the term of then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This is why despite our insistence that cement should be used, the DPWH still used asphalt. After only 8 years of use, the roadway is already pockmarked with potholes, which makes the roadway extremely dangerous because vehicles drive fast on the SRP. But in the elevated roadway by the tunnel, which is cemented, there is no problem and you can see it by driving there.

Now the DPWH once more is asphalting the SRP, and with the rains already here, I doubt if this new asphalt would last 8 years. This is what I call throwing good money after bad. Cebu Province is the seat of the country’s top three cement companies, and it pains me that our DPWH even in the new age of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III’s Daang Matuwid still hasn’t changed its ways. Proof that nothing has changed under PNoy.

Also last Sunday; The Philippine Star had an editorial entitled “Road Quality.” Let me reprint the most important item of that editorial… “Studies conducted by the World Bank have shown that road construction and repair as well as other public works projects are amongst the biggest sources of corruption in many countries. Hefty amounts paid as bribes to win contracts prompt certain contractors to cut corners and deliver substandard roads.

Corruption takes away funds that can be used for many other basic services. Even if the reason for substandard road projects is not corruption but sheer incompetence, that kind of performance should have no place in an administration that is supposed to be promoting good governance. At least the editorial was very honest when is pointed out the word “supposed” because in my book, we have yet to see any reforms coming from the DPWH and the SRP asphalting project is another proof that they haven’t changed.

I have written volumes of columns about the huge difference in the cost and maintenance between an asphalted road and a cemented road. For the nth time, my best example is the stretch of road from Beverly Hills down to Peace Valley, which I noticed was asphalted by the City of Cebu at least twice a year because this road at the bottom of the valley doubled as a riverbed. I convinced then Councilor Gabby Leyson to allocate funds to cement that road and for whatever it cost the City of Cebu to cement that road is nothing compared to the great savings in not having to asphalt this road twice a year. Surely by now the DPWH knows this well enough. Why they continue or insist on using asphalt is truly amazing stupidity.

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