Who will run Cebu BRT?

Watching the road lane construction for the Cebu Bus Rapid transit (BRT) along Osmeña Blvd., Cebuanos eagerly await the birth of a new era --one of the best public transportation systems in the world running on Cebu’s streets. First the lanes, then the buses, and voila! Cebu BRT finally runs. But will it? In all probability, the government will bend over backwards to make at least a single bus run as soon as possible. Providing sustained service is another thing.

Unfortunately, the BRT is not simply buses over dedicated lanes. The BRT is a “system,” not a simple one but rather complex, each facet of which must be working well for the entire thing to run smoothly. And a few things seem to be missing, or at least, have remained unspoken: Who will run it? I went back through my files and found questions I asked 14 years ago on May 9, 2009, when Cebu City hosted the Cebu City BRT Studies Coordination Conference at Park Lane Hotel.

As the conference ended, I asked, “Who is going to implement the project? Who will run the system? Who owns the buses? Who runs the network? Who will run the stations? And who will set the fares?” And I ended, “I am afraid that these obstacles if not properly addressed could jeopardize implementation.”

The questions seemingly remained unanswered until now. I am sure the government has already probably decided on these institutional and operational aspects, but unfortunately, along with other things, they have decided to make these as state secrets. Unbeknownst to many, the critical aspects of the BRT are not the route, lanes, buses, and stations. What is crucial is the institutional, operational, and management aspects of the complex system. In a series of columns in July 2015, I ended up with a treatise which states, “the success or failure of Philippine BRTs” depend not so much on its design or construction, but more on how it would be run, and the institutional arrangement that operates them.”

Firstly --institutions. As of now, there is no entity identified which will run it. There is only one unit of government which may legally run the buses immediately, but I believe DOTr does not want that and prefers to create a new one instead. That’s fine, except for the fact this will take at least a year in Congress and creating it by executive fiat may run into legal complications. Secondly, there’s the matter of concocting the contractual arrangements of running the system by the private sector through service contracting. The biggest hurdle for this is the matter of “appropriations” which has a two- to three-year legislative process --clearly inappropriate for service contracting.

And thirdly, the matter of fare-collection. If this is not concluded soon, we may find ourselves having “Libreng Sakay” again (the government’s scapegoat for its inability to collect fares legally). If and when they will announce “Libreng Sakay,” it means they have again failed. Service contracting is an excellent system but only if coupled by a robust fare collection system.

Unfortunately, the government elects to withhold these things from the public… Again, “having buses and lanes do not make a BRT.”