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Thursday, January 08, 2004
Citom fears politics will derail its southbound traffic experiment
By Gingging A. Campaña
WITH the election season, some members of the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) fear that the Cebu City Council will not act on their request to extend for 30 days more the experiment on the new routes for Cebu southbound passenger minibuses and V-hires.
Starting last Oct. 27, public utility vehicles (PUVs) plying Cebu south have been barred from entering the city’s central business district so they could load and unload passengers only at the One Citilink Terminal on N. Bacalso Ave.
One Citilink is the only accredited terminal, apart from the old South Bus Terminal, that caters to PUVs in the south.
Citing heavy traffic in the downtown area, the scheme was extended for 60 days and no-entry signs for southbound passenger vehicles were again installed on streets leading to the business district.
Amendment
But after Jan. 26, the Traffic Police Division of Citom is planning to ask the council to amend City Ordinance 801 and make the new routes permanent.
“It will be impractical for Citom to go back to the old routes if the council refuses to act on the request. It will no longer be our negligence…” said Supt. Melvin Gayotin.
But Citom Chief Valeriano Avila said he is sure the council will extend the period of the rerouting because it is the only local body that can amend ordinances.
“If they will not take this seriously, we can do nothing about it,” Avila told the board during its regular meeting yesterday.
Councilor Procopio Fernandez, a member of the board and chairman of the council committee on police, fire and penology, defended the legislative body.
“It’s not really the council but it is the committee tasked to review the scheme which failed to deliver the report at the given time. That is why I just asked for the extension of the experimental period,” Fernandez told the board.
Since it might take the council some time to deliberate on the proposed amendment to Ordinance 801, the board agreed yesterday to ask for another extension.
Lawyer Glenn Capanas, private sector representative to the board, said that if Ordinance 801 is used, Citom needs a special circumstance to justify the new routes before the council.
Ordinance 801 allows Citom to experiment on new routes within 30 days based on a “special circumstance.”
“There is a caution to this if we need to extend the 30-day experiment period,” Capanas explained.
“I just hope they will not make this a part of their political agenda. Kapoy na,” Avila said.
It was later agreed, upon the suggestion of Acting City Attorney Evangeline Abatayo, to use as a valid defense for the rerouting the opening of classes after the holidays and the Sinulog festivities.
(January 8, 2004 issue)
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