Quo tendimus?

I am not really good at Latin, a few phrases I know can be counted with the fingers of my hands. But I wanted a Latin title, so I just used Google translate to arrive at this title. “Quo tendimus?” Where are we going? Where are we headed? Last Saturday, I attended a plush affair at NuStar right there at what was formerly Kawit Island decades ago, now one of the more affluent places in the whole of SRP (South Road Properties, but formerly the South Reclamation Project). “Cebu Rising” as it was aptly called, the function highlighted some of the exciting and ambitious “plans” for Cebu’s future.

The affair displayed a number of exciting developments, all centered on looking forward to a grand future for Cebu, and featured transportation, sustainable waste management, clean energy solutions (and security), and desalination. All considered to be in the field of infrastructure, of which I am mostly interested in and so I had a grand time absorbing all the valuable information about Cebu’s future. And being assured the future generations wouldn’t lack the plans for their future, but hoping our leaders, present and future, would sustain all these plans to completion.

I rest assured that most of the big-time needs of the metropolis will be sufficiently met by all these grand plans, but there are some things I missed and wished were addressed. Hopefully, we’ll see the light of day soon, and plans will be formulated within our lifetime. With all its ‘deficiencies’ our government can actually deliver most, if not all, of our future infrastructure needs, albeit delayed sometimes. The most relevant among the infrastructure sector would be the transportation and water subsectors.

In the road sector, the most prominent now being executed is the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). While many remain skeptical of this “relatively new” public transport system (it actually has been around since the 1970s, but mostly in Brazil), the first few kilometers are currently being done, and hopefully will operate in a few months. I am not particularly impressed by this choice of a “showcase” as it connected two places which do not have sizable ridership figures, but we’re stuck with it. I am crossing my fingers for people to appreciate the project, even with the less numbers projected.

But the other future infrastructure strangely left unexplored is the possible expressway to run through Metro Cebu from Talisay to Mactan, passing through the cities of Cebu and Mandaue. We can easily visualize the possibility of extending this to the north and south of Cebu Island, in phases as the demand requires, including, in the far future, a parallel one on the mountainside. These can just be at-grade in most sections but elevated when circumstances require. BRT is very important since it is public transport, but we need to ease traffic flow for private vehicles, too.

The question is who is planning for these? Basically, what are needed are master planning, feasibility studies, financing acquisition, detailed engineering, and project execution. A lot of these things were initiated before by former Cebu City mayor Tommy Osmeña even for the entire Metro Cebu. But now we’re seemingly on suspended animation. Quo tendimus?