Updates from the DOTr

I had a chance meeting with Land Transportation Office-7 Regional Director Victor Caindec last week during an event with the University of the Philippines Cebu alumni. Director Caindec was my schoolmate at the UP High School in Cebu, and was there as an alumnus.

After the event, Vic shared to me briefly about what the national government is doing to address the perennial traffic problem in Cebu. This was prompted by the spontaneous question and answer that followed the speech of that evening’s guest of honor, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Ernesto M. Pernia, who is likewise a professor emeritus at the UP School of Economics.

Secretary Pernia walked his audience through economic data over the past three years and the positive economic prospects this year despite some headwinds like the COVID-19 and the US-China trade war.

During the question and answer, it was obvious that the concerns of the audience were mainly about local traffic and public transport. These were the same questions raised by the audience in a business forum at UP Cebu organized by its School of Management earlier that afternoon.

To his credit, Secretary Pernia graciously took the time to address these local concerns from a policy perspective, emphasizing the need to strengthen the NEDA by levelling it up to a department of government.

Currently, NEDA primarily functions as the authority in macroeconomic forecasting and policy analysis and research. It’s a government think tank and high-level adviser, in other words.

Now Pernia is pushing for the passage of a bill in Congress that will institutionalize NEDA as the country’s premier socioeconomic planning agency “that will oversee the crafting and implementation of long-term, continuing, integrated, and coordinated programs and policies for national development.” That way, the proposed department can also oversee the implementation of big-ticket projects.

Among the big-ticket projects that are foremost in the minds of Cebuanos is the mass transport system. One time in an economic forum, a seatmate blurted out: When will this administration start inaugurating its own projects? Most big-ticket projects completed under this administration were planned and started during Aquino’s time.

Well, there are signs that the pace may be picking up in the major projects related to road infrastructure and public transport. Last Saturday, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade announced that the bus augmentation system for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit project will start on March 15, although he clarified that it’s not yet the long-delayed BRT system.

That’s still a bit of good news for traffic-weary Cebuanos. After President Rodrigo Duterte brought the matter up about the need for Metro Cebu to adopt the elevated rail and road systems because it is an old city, there is now real public expectation that these systems will be implemented soon.

Incidentally, the president spoke about this matter that is very important to the Cebuanos during an occasion that is sacred to the Cebuanos, the Sinulog festival. It’s like a sacred promise to the people who helped him win in 2016: I’ll help you fix your traffic problem.

Tugade last Saturday also mentioned the cable cars project which will connect the international airport to Cebu City. He said the DOTr will also fast-track the monorail system, “which is the backbone of the Integrated and Inter-modal Transport System (IITS) in Cebu.”

With a sigh of weariness, we in Cebu are now waiting for those now fully in charge at the local and national level to show us some results.