AT A GLANCE. Disclosed at the Wednesday, May 12, regular session of the Cebu City Council, which looked into the status of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit Project (BRT):
[1] Norvin Ymbong, deputy project manager for systems and stakeholders relations of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), said the first part, called Package 1, spanning about 2.38 kilometers of dedicated lane with four bus stations -- from the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) along Natalio Bacalso Ave. to the Capitol area, along Osmeña Blvd. -- will be operational in December this year. The original target was October 2016 but it has been reset three times already (December 2017, January 2020 and December 2021).
The Cebu BRT would be the first mass transit system for Cebu and the first operational BRT project in the country. It aims to serve 60,000 passengers daily.
[2] Councilor James Anthony Cuenco, who was briefed the day before by BRT project managers, said there are conditions that must be met this May, namely, Neda approval of change of scope and cost and downloading of fund from DBM before the winning bidder can start the civil works. Cuenco said it would be a "tight leash" for meeting the December target for Package 1.
The Cebu BRT project is funded by the World Bank and Agence Francaise de Development, with DOTr and Neda leading the implementation.
[3] A total of 2,180 trees will be affected by the project, most of them to be earth-balled and some to be cut down. The sum of P35 million will be spent for the "greening" activity, with half the amount already transferred to City Hall. Councilor Alvin Dizon warned on government's less-than-stellar track record on tree planting.
[4] Vice Mayor Michael Rama, yielding his seat as presiding officer, expressed "disappointment" in and "disenchantment" with the decision to open the Bulacao-to-Mambaling stretch of BRT to mixed traffic, not as a dedicated lane. Rama, claiming that it was the first time he heard of the change, said it violated the original concept of the project for which then Tomas Osmeña and he, in their separate terms as mayor, worked for approval.
Other than the shift to mixed traffic in the Bulacao-Mambaling phase, Ymbong said, in answer to Minority Floor Leader Nestor Archival Sr.'s inquiry, the route is "substantially" the same.
COUNCIL'S CONCERNS, 'BASKET OF SOLUTIONS.' The Sanggunian questions dwelt on route changes, which caused a controversy in 2019; the more than 2,000 trees that have to be pulled out; and, more loudly, coming from VM Rama, the change to mixed traffic in the Bulacao-Mambaling route.
Ymbong said they are "positive" about Neda approval of the application for change of cost (from P16.3 billion to P17 billion) and change of scope (which he didn't specify). Already approved were the loan extension and completion date extension, to March and June 2023.
As to the shift to mixed traffic on the Bulacao-to-Mambaling corridor, Ymbong said it is part of the "basket of solutions" that Department of Transportation consultants recommended to solve Metro Cebu's traffic crisis.
INTEGRATED, INTERMODAL SYSTEM. The vaunted "basket of solutions," starting with the CBRT project, is actually part of the planned Metro Cebu Integrated Inter-modal Transportation System (MCIITS). It includes, Ymbong told the Sanggunian, a monorail system traversing Cebu City from south to north, and from I.T. Park to the Lapu-Lapu airport, as well as a cable cars from the I.T. Park to the mountain barangays.
Rama, wary of the "basket" and its "solutions," disagreed, saying Cebu City is "a constricted city." He didn't explain but Rama has opposed monorails, skywalks, flyovers, and underpasses, advocating for the BRT and widening of roads instead to protect the city's "heritage and legacy." He warned that the Bulacao-Mambaling route of BRT would create "a traffic monster."
WORRY OVER ROUTE SHORTENING. Originally estimated at 21.58 kilometers from Bulacao to Talamban, the route lengthened to 39.88 kilometers following a privileged speech on August 27, 2019 by then north district congressman Raul Del Mar in which he assailed reports that the BRT route was shortened. DOTr Undersecretary Mark Richmund De Leon told Cebu media on September 3, 2019 that instead of being reduced, the BRT was even lengthened by 18.3 kilometers.
Nobody asked, and Ymbong didn't tell, the exact total length of the BRT route under the final plan. Councilor Archival said he was interested only in whether it covered Bulacao and would serve commuters in the south. No substantial changes on the routes to be served, said Ymbong. Usec De Leon in 2019 said the plan was even to extend the BRT to Talisay City, but the Cebu City councilors didn't ask what happened to the plan.
Archival was interested only in Bulacao. But in the motions approved by the City Council, the local legislators asked for the schedules of completion of the various packages and invited the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) for a briefing on its P35-million "greening" work on the more than 2,000 trees the BRT project would dislocate.