IT HAS been a month since the Sinulog Grand Parade and nothing, and I mean nothing, is being done about the concreting project on J. Urgello St. in Barangay Sambag 1 in Cebu City.
Oh, don’t get me wrong.
Whoever is responsible for greenlighting this unnecessary, waste-of-taxpayers’-money “de-asphalting” has upended the lives of countless of people. Students who have to go to school, workers who have to go to work and residents who go about their daily routine have had to adjust since the City Government took away one lane of an already narrow, busy two-lane street in September.
Because, really, who would have thought that it would take the City five months to pave one lane that stretches roughly 200 meters long? And it’s not even finished. There are portions that have been left to the elements.
That’s why I would like to call the attention of Secretary Michael Dino of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas.
He should tell his boss in Malacañang that contrary to this administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, Cebu City is “Destroying, Destroying, Destroying” asphalted roads left and right and then leaving them half-way finished for months on end.
And since the City or the barangay did not cordon off the area that has been newly concreted, some residents have turned one half of J. Urgello St. into their private parking space.
I know Mayor Edgardo Labella and his friends like to walk around the oval at the Cebu City Sports Center every morning. Perhaps, they should take a detour one of these days and come down and see for themselves. That way, they’d understand why I’m yammering.
They can walk down Uytengsu St. Marvel at the open sewer or the uncollected garbage that line the street.
Once they make a left on J. Urgello, they have to watch their backs for counterflowing motorcycles while they weave in and out of parked vehicles, while trying not to choke on the noxious fumes from passing public utility jeepneys.
As they make their way down P. del Rosario Ext., perhaps they’ll discover that Barangay Sambag 1 has solved its litter problem when they chance upon mounds of open garbage by the side of the road.
Speaking of which, I wonder if Sambag 1 has formed a validation team to improve monitoring of road-clearing operations, as mandated by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t even know who the barangay captain is.