Time to remove jeepneys and transfer them
Yesterday was the first day of our 888 News Forum with Mega Cebu and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Director Evelyn Nacario Castro (Nat-C) with National Telecommunications Commission Regional Director Jesus M. Laureno and Regional Development Council Infrastructure Committee chairman Glenn Soco as guests, co-hosted by Art Barritt. I posed a statement to Nat-C for Mega Cebu and Glenn Soco on my 2019 advocacy that Cebu drivers, either private license or public license holders, should be apprehended when they drive on the left side of the road on the Fernan Bridge or the South Coastal Road in the South Road Properties.
It is a fact that the PNP today has more vehicles than ever before, especially new motorcycles for the traffic group, but no one is patrolling and apprehending violators in these areas. It is high time drivers of container vans, buses, or delivery vans learn to drive properly. They ought to learn to drive on the right lane side of the road as the left-hand lane is used for faster vehicles.
Art Barritt even added that going to the SRP there are signs saying trucks and buses drive on the rightmost lane, but despite Cebu City giving our enforcers vehicles to patrol the SRP no one is arresting violators. In the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) or the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) if you drive your van on the leftmost lane, you are going to get fined, which is why drivers in Metro Manila know how to drive properly and safely, while Cebu drivers need to be educated on driving properly. As you all know apprehending traffic violators is the best form of educating our drivers.
Again, I would like to reiterate that it is high time for Cebu City to collate the number of driving schools doing business here and I believe none of these driving instructors are trained in traffic rules and Education, so perhaps it is high time for Cebu City to professionalize this industry because we know for a fact that they are good educators in teaching students how to manipulate a car, but nearly zero in teaching them about traffic rules and regulations.
The last question I brought up with Mega Cebu is the need for the Island of Cebu to start constructing wide sidewalks. It doesn’t matter if you are a town in Cebu Province or in Metro Cebu; the time has come for our local government units to give our pedestrians wide sidewalks. This is something we should all fight for, especially as 2019 is an election year. We should demand from those who are running for public office their personal commitment to build wider sidewalks. I’m not saying that we can accomplish this project in a year’s time, but this should be a yearly project from now on.
I dare challenge our people that if they vote for the same corrupt government officials, we should not blame them for winning, rather the blame should go to the voters who should be called accomplices of the corrupt officials. We should look at 2019 as the year when we ourselves make changes in us. That we should be less tolerant of corruption or incompetence from the people we vote into office! I dare say it is time for us to let our elected officials truly serve the needs of our people and we should not be treated as ugly citizens by our supposedly public servants! That change should occur in this mid-term election!
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Finally, last Sunday as I toured the areas of Cebu Province like Talamban, Toledo, Pinamugajan, Aloguisan, Barili, Carcar, San Fernando, Naga, Minglanilla, and Talisay City, it just occurred to me that all these municipalities or cities still have tricycles even along national roads where tricycles are supposedly banned. I know for a fact that the Department of Transportation is trying to replace jeepneys with modern units and some of them are already here in Metro Cebu, but jeepney drivers refuse to change simply because they don’t know what to do with their jeepney.
Actually, it is because DOTr officials do not know how to remove those jeepneys from Metro Cebu and assign them to places like Mandaue or Talisay which are still using tricycles as their main public transportation. They should do it the way we are telling them how to do it!
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