We should never allow Cebu to be left behind

More than anyone else, we have spent our entire life advocating what we can do or should do for Cebu in order to make it the place we can all be proud of, not just for us Cebuanos but for all the people who have decided to make it their home. Call it an advocacy of a lifetime that I have committed for. Truth to tell, with all my frustrations, it would have been very easy for me to throw the towel and relocate my family abroad and start a new life either in Australia, New Zealand or the US. But what we are doing here is nation building. That is why we have to do what we need to do, come hell or high water!

That Cebu today has always been at the losing end of the policies of imperial Manila is something that even the ordinary Cebuano knows by heart. This is why a great number of Cebuanos (with the exception perhaps of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. who told this to us in that debate he had on the Bangsamoro Basic Law) are for the country to become a federal system of government. Davide said that we should pass the BBL first then perhaps we can think of federalism. How misinformed he is on this.

Today, thanks to the policies of the Liberal Party and the Aquino regime, our infrastructure development has been neglected in the past five years. For instance, we needed at least four flyovers between Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City. First a flyover at the end of the old Mactan bridge to connect to the main streets of Lapu-Lapu City.

Then we needed another flyover along M.L. Quezon Ave. corner Plaridel Street. Then a left-turning flyover from the United Nations Ave. corner Cebu North Road a.k.a. Mandaue Highway. And finally, we need that flyover in Mandaue Highway corner A.S. Fortuna Ave. so that traffic in these areas would be smooth rather that what it is today, which is hopelessly clogged.

Traffic is a madhouse in Mandaue City. They are only fixing the roads, instead of building flyovers that could have allowed traffic to move from the traffic congested areas. When traffic is that bad, like what many of my friends told me that last Friday, it took them three hours from Mactan to Cebu City and despite the efforts of traffic enforcement officers in Mandaue City. 

At this point, we have no way of telling whether that one-way scheme that Mandaue traffic officials embarked just a few days ago is working or not. The traffic management team of Mandaue City should inform us whether things are working their way or not so that another scheme can be hatched to solve the traffic mess that they are encountering everyday. But what I have always emphasized is that despite the Mandaue City officials - from Mayor Jonas Cortes to Luigi Quisumbing's fealty to Pres. PNoy Aquino - they never got any infrastructure development that would have solved their traffic woes. We should never allow Cebu to be left behind!

Frankly speaking, I would have loved to go and watch the Ironman competitions, but thanks to bad traffic, I decided to stay home. Bad traffic management is also the main reason why I have not attended the celebrations for the Battle of Mactan. We can only hope that traffic would ease someday if Metro Cebu finally gets a real mass transit system like a subway system like what they have in Singapore or Hong Kong. Right now, this is but a pipe dream and I honestly believe that if we elect DILG Sec. Mar Roxas to the presidency, Cebu will experience another six-years of "puasa" from infrastructure development, something that the Aquino regime have denied Cebuanos in the last five-years of his presidency.

If at all there is a bright spot for Cebu, I came in a form of a news report in the front page of The Freeman last Sunday, which was headlined, "Airport execs prepare plan for 2nd runway." More than anyone else, I was elated to read this news report; after all, I spent more than half of my term as member of the board of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority asking for a parallel runway because I did not want our airport to become congested like what is happening at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

A couple of Sundays ago, I flew to Manila via PAL and the flight was on time. But upon preparing for landing, suddenly the pilot announced over the speaker that we have been instructed by the NAIA control tower to do a holding position and we circled around Metro Manila for 40 minutes due to runway congestion. What was a one-hour flight nearly became a two-hour flight because the DOTC refuse to build a parallel runway in NAIA. We should never allow this to happen to MCIA. And I am glad that the MCIAA Board has listened to our pleas and has begun to plan for this second runway. I just hope that MCIAA would have the funds for this project.

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