Cebu City’s major issues; garbage and water

Appearing at the 888 News Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza was Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Rep. Raul del Mar, and Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos. I only asked two questions. The first was to Del Mar about the approval of the second runway at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, and he told me that there will be a meeting today or tomorrow on this issue. People have asked me why I did not give this project much thought and I always say that a project that is approved in Congress doesn’t impress me until it becomes a reality or a finished project. I hope Del Mar will push a little harder to have this project become a reality.

As for Mayor Osmeña, I asked him why he blocked the Ciudad project citing bad traffic in Banilad as a reason, but he did not block the 20-story resource center of Governor Davide and he answered that Escario Street was part of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route while Banilad was not. He says that when the BRT is operational, people will no longer use their cars.

This, for me, is highly questionable because unless the BRT passes the route from your house to your office then you don’t need a car. But chances are you’d still need your car from point A to point B, which the BRT will not pass through. I honestly had more questions to ask the mayor, but I did not want to waste my time because the other members of the media also had questions to ask him.

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A cousin of mine arrived the other day from New York City, where he has been living for more than 20 years now, because he came home to vote. The first thing that he noticed when he got home was that his nice wall was plastered with BOPK posters. His question is who will remove those posters when the election is over? This is a question that everyone ought to ask. Win or lose, would the candidates voluntarily remove their posters? What is the rule of the Comelec on this issue?

Another thing my cousin noticed was a serious lack of water, and worse, the water supplier they contacted did not show up at the agreed time. At this point all I could text my cousin is “Welcome back to the 3rd world country that we Cebuanos continue to live with!” This brings us to the rapid development of Cebu. Call it a development without taking into account the future water supply of the condominiums being constructed in Metro Cebu.

Eight years ago, during a retreat that we took in St. John’s Priory in Banawa Hills, we climbed up the mountain behind the Good Shepherd Convent to what is now the Monterrazas Development and this gives you the best view of any subdivision in Cebu City. Back then I still recall that Cebu City was starting to develop. Last Sunday I went to Monterrazas to fly my drone in my friends’ house and clearly that view has rapidly changed with Cebu City having so many tall buildings that weren’t there eight years ago.

Looking at that rapid development, it naturally brings forth the question where would all those condominiums get their water supply. Mind you, except for Landmasters, those developers all come from Metro Manila and clearly they don’t know about the scarce water supply problem in Metro Cebu. For sure, these land developers also do not know that we have a serious garbage disposal problem.

I already wrote a column about our problem with garbage disposal, which was editorialized in The FREEMAN a month ago, that there is a law penalizing residents who do not segregate their garbage and many residents have already been fined for their infraction. Yet, we learned that when the dump trucks of Cebu City reach their dumpsite the segregated garbage is merely dumped in one pit, making segregation utterly pointless. At this point, no one from the City of Cebu or even Mayor Tomas Osmeña answered me as if I didn’t write about this issue at all.

With elections coming next week on May 13, I dare our readers to look into two major issues that continue to plaque Cebu City; garbage and our serious lack of water. Go around Cebu City today and you will see that our garbage isn’t being collected as they should be! [email protected]