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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Editorial: SCR ruling: not yet the end of the road?
That the court would rule in favor of the reopening of the South Coastal Road (SCR) in Cebu City pending litigation was not unexpected.
Law and good sense, which uphold public good, were stacked against the closure.
How can the city mayor close a national public road---which indisputably eases highway traffic congestion---and legally and validly justify it in the name of public safety when at the same time selected motorists are allowed to use the road?
What must dismay many people is that it took more than six months for the Regional Trial Court to grant the emergency remedy.
The injunction sought was for an "urgent necessity": to protect the parties and preserve their rights or interests while the main action is litigated. And yet the case dragged on and on.
Filed on April 15 yet by lawyer Alfredo J. Sipalay, the case, or at least the injunction plea, could have been resolved much earlier.
In fairness to the court, RTC Judge Soliver C. Peras, in his decision granting the writ, chafed over the delay.
It was apparently the doing of respondent officials, led by the grumpy mayor who, stubbornly choosing private ill-will or spite over public welfare, persisted in fighting the lawsuit.
The litigation was a wasteful exercise made necessary only because officials would not admit that what they were doing was ill-advised and wrong.
President Arroyo and the Department of Interior and Local Government, as supervisors of local governments, could have intervened in the conflict and avoided the litigation.
The President cited a policy of non-meddling in local controversies, which was absurd considering that the job of overseeing LGUs precisely requires supervisors' intervention when public interest requires it.
The mayor has no choice but to respect the court's order, but then he is used to doing what he wants and getting away with it.
Before he comes up with any more device of whim, let him remember what the ruling said about SCR and other public roads:
They are made for the use of the general public, not only for selected few with "security passes."
He can give juicy contracts to favored contractors or overlook defective deliveries but a public road is for all.
Unless the mayor sees that, it is not yet the end of the road for the SCR controversy.
It isn't over till the fat lady, or---as a radio critic puts it---someone with a potbelly, sings.
(October 19, 2005 issue)
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