WITH the new set of government officials in place in Metro Cebu this time around, expect a better reception of the Duterte administration’s Integrated Intermodal Transport System (IITS) plan for Metro Cebu. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade’s recent visit to Cebu included visits to targeted sites of the IITS stations in the metro.
In the past, the IITS concept was coldly received by then mayor Tomas Osmeña, whose pet project, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), became only a part of the IITS scheme. As conceived, the IITS will include, asidefrom the BRT, the monorail and cable car systems and will span not only Cebu City but also the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
Osmeña pushed hard for the BRT to the detriment of the other proposed mass transport systems apparently for selfish reasons. Besides, Osmeña and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino could not see eye-to-eye not only on the BRT issue but also on other matters, considering the animosity that exists between them
Which makes that photo showing Dino accompanying Tugade during his visit interesting. Osmeña is no longer around and Cebu City is now being led by Edgardo Labella, whom Dino is friendly with. I don’t think Dino has issues with Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan. Dino I think also has good relations with Gov. Gwen Garcia.
Unity among Metro Cebu leaders is what is being demanded to solve the metro’s traffic woes. That is why Osmeña was wrong in attempting to do things on his own via the BRT. Cebu City’s traffic concerns can’t be dealt with separately from that of the other major urban areas in the metro. That is also what recent history is telling us.
Osmeña knows that, of course, because his initial stint as Cebu City mayor coincided with the initial implementation of the first phase of the Metro Cebu Development Projects or MCDP that was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. It wasn’t called the Cebu City Development Projects for a reason.
If the Duterte administration makes good on its promise, then we will finally have the mass transport systems we have long dreamed of. Tugade, though, seems determined.
“We are all committed to make the IITS possible. We want partial operability on the BRT, on the monorail, and on the cable system by the last quarter of 2021,” he said. When Tugade said that, he probably had already been briefed by Dino about the positive development in Metro Cebu governance.
By the way, I have not ridden a ferris wheel ever and am hesitant to try the zip line. Which means that I am more interested in the cable car than in the BRT or monorail. I just hope, though, that all those mass transport systems will be affordable and will not be bogged down by problems like the rail transits in Metro Manila.
Which incidentally is what happens in many projects handled by the government where corruption and incompetence often pulls down good intentions. On this, I would quote the late journalist Abe Licayan: “Let us to see.”