Editorial: Traffic jam in Tabunok

IT CAN BE considered a mere footnote to the coverage of the rain-affected Liberal Party (LP) gathering in Talisay City last Tuesday. Visitors led by President Noynoy Aquino and his mighty Presidential Security Group (PSG) may not have even noticed it or didn’t care. But to ordinary commuters, it was an invitation to rage.

We are referring to the traffic jam that emanated from the portion of the Cebu south road that passes Tabunok, the barangay where the LP gathering was transferred after the original venue, a vacant lot across the Talisay City Hall, was rained out.

Read this post written by reader Janelle Jo D. Jagna in reaction to the news story on the LP gathering that came out in the website of Sun.Star Cebu (sunstar.com.ph/cebu) yesterday. It could very well sum up the inconvenience brought by the decision to hold the activity in Tabunok:

“While I support PNoy's steps to matuwid na daan, I think it was insensitive for the organizers of this rally to transfer the venue to a place where they had to close one lane. I personally think there are other more appropriate venues to transfer to.

“It affected a lot of people. We had to walk from Basak (in Cebu City) to Tabunok (Talisay City). We got stuck in traffic for almost two hours, and most of us didn't even have dinner yet. And I guess almost all people there were students or workers who had to wake up early today (Wednesday)!

“Politicians should be altruistic, but I, for one, didn't feel this last night (Tuesday night). Spell ‘insensitive’.”

Talisay City officials know that even under normal circumstances, the Tabunok portion of the south road always poses traffic problems. What more in a situation where only one lane of the road was used and one side of the Mananga bridge was transformed into a parking area (a dangerous move supposedly suggested by the PSG and the police).

Allies of first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas, who is running for Talisay City mayor, claimed that they suggested to LP stalwarts in the city to hold the gathering at the poblacion, but the suggestion wasn’t heeded. The poblacion is far from the south road, Cebu’s main artery.

Listening to an interview by a Talisay City official allied with the LP gives us the impression he was worried that Gullas would take advantage if the venue was the poblacion (how, he did not say). That means ordinary people were sacrificed for political reasons.

It was an unfortunate incident that should not happen again.