CITING flaws in the way the Light Rail Tranist (LRT) project was proposed to the Cebu City Government, the City Council made an official stand objecting to the $600-million project.

City officials are worried the project will be “railroaded” and that the City will be bypassed.

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Vice Mayor Michael Rama reiterated yesterday that the City’s policy direction as early as December last year is the establishment of a public urban mass transport through a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

In his privilege speech during the regular session yesterday, Rama said the LRT was proposed without any consultation with the city’s officials and constituents.

“Before it can be implemented without us knowing it, we’d like to make it clear that we are against it. In the meantime, we will spend our time and effort on the BRT. I’d like to reiterate the role of the City Council, that no National Government project can proceed in our city without our concurrence and consultation,” he said.

Rama echoed Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s suspicion that the City Government will be bypassed, especially since the procedures in implementing a major National Government-funded project was not followed.

He recalled that the proponents informed the mayor and other city officials of the project through a meeting in a local hotel just last month.

For Councilor Edgardo Labella, the way the proponents of the LRT brought the project to the attention of the City is “procedurally flawed.”

“The manner by which the project was brought to our attention is procedurally flawed…It must go through the process of consultation, that as representatives of our constituency, we have to determine if the project will be beneficial or will have adverse effect. There’s a need to study it,” he told his colleagues.

Rama and the councilors spoke against the LRT project after City Planning and Development Coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete told them that it might be implemented without the endorsement of the City Government.

The project has not been endorsed by the City Development Council and the City Council, he said; such endorsement is required before the matter can be taken up at the Regional Development Council.

“We feel there might be some railroading of the project, so to speak, so it will bypass the legitimate official bodies. There is a fear they will railroad it. I wish the City Council will make a strong stand on the matter, that the City Council shall be given ultimate authority to approve or disapprove a certain project,” Villarete said.

This is why, he added, it is the proponents of the project LRT-Mono Rail Transit (MRT) who must reconsider, instead of the City Government, which is espousing the BRT.

He said Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu Province, 1st district) and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) must immerse themselves in and study the BRT to better understand it before trying to convince the City to endorse the LRT-MRT.

“We (Cebu City) studied BRT and LRT and we have made the intelligent choice…We are not in a position to reconsider.

We have studied all alternatives and we have come up with an official stand long before the LRT was proposed by the DOTC,” he added.

Gullas, the other day, requested Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to reconsider his refusal to endorse the proposed P27-billion LRT-MRT.

Gullas assured that the project is of no cost to the City, as it will be implemented in a Build-Operate-Transfer scheme.

He also said that the LRT is the cheapest mass transport system that Metro Cebu could avail itself of.

Villarete disagreed, saying P30 billion could build a 14-kilometer LRT, which would run from Talisay City to Mandaue City; the same amount could build a 225-kilometer BRT that would span from Minglanilla town in the south to Consolation town in the north and include Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town in Mactan island.

He also scoffed at the idea of having both the LRT and the BRT.

“If one (transport system) could hardly be feasible, how much more if we have two? If they would really insist, then they must provide transport data supporting it (LRT-MRT),” he said.

He mentioned Administrative Order 254 that President Arroyo issued last Jan. 30, 2009 for the DOTC to formulate a national environmentally sustainable transport (EST) strategy for the country.

The EST, he said, sets the development of a mass transport system “especially the BRT.”

“We are not doing this in a vacuum. This is something we have been diligently working on,” Villarete said.