Now that Fiesta Señor is here again, let’s be prepared to deal with horrendous traffic in Cebu. As if we hadn’t had enough of crawling traffic last holiday season, we just have to face this reality each time the Sinulog fever comes to town.
The last time we checked, reports showed that heavy traffic in Metro Cebu causes over P1.1 billion in daily economic losses. In 2025, Cebu City had no less than 24 traffic accidents every day. Traffic volume, on the other hand, stood at over 75,000 daily at the South Road Properties alone. And while the number of vehicles has risen beyond our infrastructure capacity, thousands of traffic violations hound us monthly.
That the situation has not improved a bit these past years is no surprise. After all, our new officials who are supposed to be on top of it only inherited the scenario from previous ones who haven’t been very effective in planning for the future. The former officials may in fact be blamed for what’s happening in our city streets now.
Remember the so-called “basket of solutions” that previous government officials peddled to the Cebuano public as a cure to the traffic malady? They made us believe that an electric railway transit was on its way for implementation. Other projects like intelligent transport and new traffic management systems were likewise in the pipeline, they claimed, adding that foreign entities stood ready to fund them.
Today, the entire caboodle appears to have become a basket of frustrations.
Worse, the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (CBRT) project which is our biggest bet for an efficient mass transport system is fast becoming a casualty. At one time, the previous officials stated that the CBRT would be scrapped, only to recant it later and perfunctorily say that it will be part of their basket of solutions. Of course, they couldn’t just easily scrap a project that’s the subject of an international loan agreement.
But their interest was really just not into it, since the project is almost proprietarily identifiable with the past administration’s political nemesis, Tommy Osmeña. Weakened and undermined, the CBRT has thus become like a decapitated chicken that’s looking for its head.
Today, the World Bank which financed the first phase of the CBRT has expressed exasperation over the project, threatening to totally withdraw support from it due to serious concerns. Meanwhile, public mass transportation continues to suffer, making our daily commute to workplaces, schools, hospitals, markets and especially churches excruciatingly difficult.
And so perhaps, this should be part of our collective prayer to the Sto. Nino de Cebu. After all, an improved public mass transport system poses huge economic, environmental and social benefits for everyone such as enhanced accessibility to jobs and services. An efficient traffic management system, on the other hand, improves road safety and reduces road congestion that will certainly boost economic efficiency.
Directly or indirectly, societal issues like traffic and transportation connect with some of our biggest individual concerns: health services, education, employment, livelihood, family and everyday safety.
Let us therefore make it a part of our prayer for Cebu to grow and improve beyond promises that have sadly become a basket of frustrations.