IF not for the delay caused by some of the critics of the project, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said, the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project could have been completed by 2019.
In a Facebook post, Osmeña accused Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino of taking credit for the BRT project even if the latter was against it before.
“Michael Dino failed to have the BRT cancelled. So now he’s going to take over its implementation so he can destroy it from within,” Osmeña wrote.
SunStar Cebu tried to get Dino’s comment on the matter but he had yet to reply as of press time.
City Administrator Nigel Paul Villarete said the project had been delayed for three years already.
Osmeña’s Facebook post came after Department of Transportation Sec. Arthur Tugade, Dino and the technical service consultants of the project met to discuss the Cebu Integrated and Intermodal Transport System (CIITS) project.
In the latest development, DOTr announced that the BRT project would push through and be part of the CIITS.
Osmeña also posted a screen-captured photo of Dino’s previous post that supported the Light Rail Transit for Cebu.
A copy of a letter signed by Dino in April 2018 requesting Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez to cancel the BRT project was also posted by Osmeña.
“Neda (National Economic and Development Authority), the agency that has final say, has twice ordered the BRT to proceed. But guess what happens when the two offices in charge of implementing the BRT are the same ones who are against it? The BRT could have begun implementation earlier this year. It should have been completed by next year,” Osmeña wrote. RVC