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Thursday, June 03, 2004
Wenceslao: Again, the south road
By Bong Wenceslao
I have been living with my wife and kid in our unfinished house in Barangay Pakigne in Minglanila town the past 10 months. In the first few days that we stayed there, I would survey the structure and imagine what it would be like when I get the money to finance its completion. The house is still unfinished and I have stopped imagining.
But we have settled down after weeks of adjusting to suburban living. For a while, traveling to and from Cebu City where we work and where the rest of our relatives are did pose problems. I could not even finish the house, how much more buy a vehicle? So we made do with public transport system available in the area—together with all its ills.
Thus, in the past 10 months, my family has gotten familiar with the work on that portion of the Cebu South Road from Talisay City to Minglanilla. Meaning, we have traveled from incredulity to exasperation and finally to resignation. Mention the words DPWH and Aboitiz Construction Group and I would raise my hands in surrender.
Not that I don’t have some comparison. After my parent’s house in B. Rodriguez was razed by a fire in 2002, my family stayed in Barangay Inayawan in Cebu City. I would jog at the San Roque, Talisay portion of the newly completed South Coastal Road. The speed the road was constructed and the quality of the work amazed me no end.
I understand the game plan of the contractor of the south road project. Unlike the South Coastal Road where work was unhampered by traffic, the south road has to be renovated section by section, with the untouched portion still open to vehicular flow. The setup, however, constricts the road, thus the traffic snarls from time to time.
What made many commuters incredulous in the initial stages was the waste. Those who saw big equipment break into pieces the old road--already concreted—and cement it again ended up asking: Why so? So this became a familiar refrain (with heads shaking) during my travels there: Tan-awa ang gobyerno, usik-usik lang sa kwarta.
But that was when the contractor was conscious about work slippage. Nowadays, one rarely hears the roaring of equipment or sees the movement of workers in that portion of the south road we pass by daily. Only the diggings usually left unattended are reminding commuters that this one is a work-in-progress, not a work-in-retrogress.
Thus, I was not surprised when once again President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reminded the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) about the sad state of the south road. Unfortunately, we already heard the same fuss before, and in the end nothing happened. I thus doubt if the President’s words will change anything.
P.S. An unidentified Text Reax contributor came up with this interesting point: Had Rep. Didagen Dilangalen won a Senate seat (he ran for senator in the May 10 elections but lost), can you imagine him crossing paths with Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago?
This one is a rather sad commentary from Vic Baguio of Matab-ang, Cordova, Cebu: “Young girls are encouraged to join the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) where they can learn about heritage, good citizenship, spirituality and teamwork and most importantly how to transfer funds to personal bank accounts.”
Finally, here’s regular texter Souie Mercado: “The opposition is set to ask the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the national canvass. They now have realized that the SC is the last bulwark of democracy—the same institution they tried to destroy when they impeached Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.”
(e-mail: khanwens@yahoo.com; text: 0927-4912362)
(June 3, 2004 issue)
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