Get the planning of roads away from DPWH!

Last Wednesday and Friday, I was able to witness traffic along the North Road in Cebu because Sept. 9th was a holiday in Cebu due to the birth anniversary of Don Sergio Osmeña, Sr. So I played in the 18th Corn Tee of the Club Filipino de Cebu at the golf course in Pulangbato, Danao City. Since Wednesday was a holiday, traffic through this new road was light. But I played my second day in this tournament on Friday, even if we passed the Cansaga Bridge at 6:30 a.m. on our way to Danao, it was a spectacle to behold seeing thousands of motorcycles inching their way kilometers from the bridge because one side of the road was concreted and so very congested.

I was with my good friends, Ramon “Boboy” Durano, IV and my Korean buddy Kay Byeon and our discussion was focused again on that proverbial P23 billion that Department of Public Works & Highways (DPWH) Sec. Rogelio Singson told Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III who in turn lambasted his critics that the Aquino administration never neglected Cebu and it poured P23 billion in the course of five years of his presidency.

The President of course touched a raw nerve with his critics (I’m sure he included me in that list) suggesting that we wear eyeglasses so we could see these road projects. Hence, I made a personal quest to go to the North in order to verify whether these road projects are real. Two Sundays ago, I got on my motorcycle with my friends and motored to San Remigio and we saw only two or three 150-meter long half concreted road being fixed in Tabuelan.

I wrote this in my column in The Freeman and two foreigners who live in Bogo City wrote back and I printed their letters last week where they were saying that what the DPWH did in Northern Cebu supposedly the P386 million rehabilitation of the roads are nothing but good roads that did not need rehabilitation, but nonetheless DPWH contractors destroyed these roads and cemented them. It was therefore a waste of taxpayer’s money.

So in two weeks, I was able to ride from Cebu City to the North via the Western Seaboard and saw only a few road projects. Then for two days last week, I passed by the most traffic prone road in Metro Cebu from Mandaue to Danao City. Passing through the newly-finished Cansaga Bridge which was constructed during the time of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and we only saw a portion of this road rehabilitated by DPWH.

Then we stopped in front of the Liloan Municipal Hall and Church so I could take a photo of a DPWH sign, which blared, “Widening of Cebu North Hagnaya Road, Liloan Section K0018+000 to K0018+240, Liloan, Cebu. Contractor Ven Ray Construction. Date Started: August 15, 2014. Date completed November 2, 2014. Contract Cost P5,885,501.41. Implementing Office DPWH 5th Engineering District. This sign tells you of a road project that was finished last year and it obviously had a minor impact on the road because traffic is still bad there as it was only a P5-million project.

That we saw hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists last Friday going against traffic because of a congested north road giving us an idea of how DPWH has bungled infrastructure in Cebu. This part of Cansaga Bridge was opened during PGMA’s time…but it needed to be widened five years ago. Sadly, it was not included in Sec. Singson’s P23-billion list for rehabilitation.

This is why I have always believed that our system of governance is totally wrong. DPWH and our respective Congressmen are the ones who plan out where the roads should go and more often than not, they do not ask the city planners where or what road needs to be widened.

The 6th Engineering District of DPWH is the best example as its offices in Mandaue City are a few meters from the worse traffic congestion in Mandaue City along M.L. Quezon Ave. and Plaridel St. Yet DPWH only came up with a P25-million concrete road divider that no one wanted or needed. But they could not even come up with an infrastructure scheme to ease traffic in Mandaue City. Makes you wonder how DPWH officials think?

Last Tuesday, Metro Manilans woke up to what they called “Carmageddon.” This is due to overdevelopment in Metro Manila where its political leadership and Metro Manila planners are still in complete denial of why they cannot fix this problem. In the Year 2000, I was running the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM) when my good friend, Rene Almendras was still running the Ayala Business Park.

Today my good friend, Sec. Rene Almendras is the Cabinet Secretary looking for solutions in EDSA. May I suggest to Rene that he pinches all his fellow Cabinet Secretaries and tell them that the reality in Metro Manila is it is just too over developed and overpopulated. Let the big business leaders invest in the rest of the Philippines rather than concentrate their investments in Metro Manila where people living there now have a fear of going out of their homes because they might not be able to come back home!

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