Espinoza: A fair competition?

Espinoza: A fair competition?

The town of Liloan, Cebu now has a seaport. This could be one of the preparations for Liloan’s desire to become a city aside from the basic population requirement. The seaport will serve travelers to Camotes Islands and back. Perhaps, later it will also serve the port of Lapu-Lapu City and Cebu City. Sea travel has become more convenient and much faster than land transportation due to problems of mobility caused by the increase in the number of all types of motor vehicles plying our roads. The width of our so-called highways, however, remains the same.

The shipping firm OceanJet already met with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on Monday, May 15, 2023, tendering its intention to serve sea travelers from the port of Liloan to the port of Poro, Camotes, and back. As a matter of fact, today, sans any unforeseen event, OceanJet will conduct a sea trial with its 350-passenger capacity fast craft that is expected to traverse the distance in one hour and 30 minutes at a speed of 22 knots.

Another shipping firm, Super Shuttle Roro, also expressed interest to ply the Liloan-Camotes route. This will mean that trips to Camotes Islands from the port of Liloan and down south of Cebu and back will be shorter than proceeding to Danao City where the city’s seaport has since been serving travelers to Camotes Islands.

Once sea travel services are operational from the port of Liloan to the port of Poro, Camotes, this will mean the convergence of more people and more vehicles in Liloan. As it is, the town center, which is accessible via the national road going to the north of Cebu and back to Cebu City, is already overwhelmed by the traffic.

Once a week I travel to the north and back. The traffic gridlock in Liloan town center, aside from Consolacion, is a daily struggle. I have written about this matter many times but it seems that officials of Liloan and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) are neither concerned nor bothered by the traffic gridlock at the intersection across the town hall and the church where the replica of the “Parola” stands.

I am certainly not an expert on traffic management. But from my experience, a roundabout or rotunda on this intersection is a better solution because there won’t be any traffic lights and there won’t be any need for manpower.

The seaport in Liloan, on the other hand, is a clever way of competing with the seaport operations of Danao City. But since the local government units are now empowered by the Local Government Code to engage in entrepreneurial activities, Danao City cannot claim exclusivity of its seaport operations serving travelers to Camotes Islands. But a healthy competition is good for the public as competitors vie to provide better services.

But under the present political climate in the fifth congressional district wherein Governor Garcia and officials of Danao City, particularly the Duranos who have been in control of the politics in Danao City, do not belong to the same party, Capitol officials cannot avoid skepticism that the operation of a Liloan seaport is politically motivated to slow down, if not put down Danao City seaport operations.

It may be recalled that the late Gov. Pablo Garcia, the political paterfamilias of the Garcias, and the late Rep. Amon Durano, the patriarch of the Duranos, were close political allies. You know, this is the beauty, if not the ugly face of politics. Those who were once political allies, by a twist of fate, can suddenly be on opposite sides of the political fence.

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