PUBLIC utility jeepneys (PUJs) are allowed to use the newly opened underpass in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City. So, too, are taxis.
Francisco Ouano, operations chief of the City Transportation Office (CTO), made this clarification following a report that only private vehicles could pass through the depressed structure.
However, Ouano encouraged PUJ and taxi drivers to use the side roads, especially if they have passengers who want to disembark between the entrance and the exit of the underpass, or above. It would be unfair to let the passengres walk the length, especially when it’s hot or when it’s raining, he said.
Ouano also made it known that buses and mini-buses are still directed to the Cebu South Coastal Road so as not to defeat the purpose of constructing the almost P700-million project that inconvenienced southern motorists for almost two years.
“There are more than 600 buses and mini-buses operating point-to-point from the Cebu South Bus Terminal (on N. Bacalso Ave.) to their destinations in southern Cebu. And we cannot allow them to pass the area because students and workers may experience heavy traffic,” he said.
The CTO official said there are eight schools that line the national highway from Cebu City to Talisay City. Buses and mini-buses heading for Barili or Dumanjug in southwestern Cebu can bypass this stretch, he said.
Ouano said they allow KMK and MyBus buses to pass through the area because these have designated stops in Barangays Inayawan, Basak and Mambaling in Cebu City.
“They said it’s unfair. But we don’t compromise traffic otherwise the students and workers will suffer,” Ouano said. (EOB)