AMBITION always has a price and requires trade-offs.
So there we were, already suffering the horrendous traffic in pre-Apec days.
But Apec days just lengthened our suffering time as vehicles from the left, right, front and back of us moved inchingly forward.
On days like these, when I would be behind the wheel, I’d be lucky if I was behind a taxi. Taxi drivers are good advance parties, very adept at finding little-known short cuts away from usual choke points.
They’re risk-takers, too. Probably because if they bump owner-driven vehicles, all they have to do is scratch their heads, beg forgiveness and appear remorseful.
The owner-driver knows that there’s no profit in engaging the taxi driver in a shouting match. And since the traffic policeman often takes his time, those stalled vehicles only worsen the traffic snarl.
So, if we’re not lucky enough to be following a taxi, then our alternative for surviving the traffic anguish is to think about the pot of gold at rainbow’s end after the Apec downpour.
After all, government functionaries like Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Charles Jose have been assuring us that huge economic gains will compensate for the inconveniences to the commuting and riding public.
Even before the official start of the meetings, government funds had already been infused into infrastructure. Those 3,000 Apec delegates will expectedly up the revenues of hotels and restaurants, which in turn will promote our agricultural products.
Of course, tourist arrivals will increase and thanks to Facebook postings, will help catapult Cebu into top-of-mind recall and cement its place in the international travel map.
And because tourists always have to bring back some souvenirs of every place visited, other beneficiaries of Apec will be Cebu’s manufacturing industry, and micro, small and medium enterprises.
Read that to mean enterprises in fashion accessories, gift items, and foods. Hopefully, too, these exposures to foreign delegates will stimulate business and trade partnerships between our local entrepreneurs and foreign counterparts.
So, where does Juan de la Cruz figure in the equation? Well, hopefully, the partnerships will spawn job opportunities, both within and outside Metro Cebu. That’s the beautiful part of ambition.
But as we build Cebu to such heights, how ready are we for the influx of more tourists, more foreign investments, and more locators setting up operational or even back offices in Cebu?
Reportedly, Bank of the Philippine Islands processes an average of 200 auto loan applications every month. Additional vehicles will only worsen the chaos in the streets.
We see no new roads being built, just old roads widened to put in at most two lanes, or sidewalks being reclaimed.
This, despite years of leaderships under different administrations, and years of discussions about the roads not being enough, about street widening just being a band-aid solution to a metropolis growing by leaps and bounds.
So, without additional roads, our traffic problems will continue to spiral down. Since Cebu’s traffic congestions are not too different from Manila’s, that efficient mass transport system we want will continue to be a pipe dream.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)