Calling its progress “unsatisfactory,” the World Bank has flagged the sluggish rollout of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (CBRT) project. Though approved in 2014, the project has spent only 29 percent of its loaned budget, according to SunStar Daily.
Because of the delays, the National Government requested the cancellation of the $84.9 million in unused loans for the CBRT project. This decision comes after a decade of delays, leaving the future of the mass transport system in limbo.
It was reported that out of the original $141 million budget, most major parts of the project are still unfinished. What was completed was the 2.38-kilometer busway and some urban improvements. Major construction for “Packages 2 and 3” is yet to begin.
The cancellation of $84.9 million in unused loans for the CBRT is not just an accounting decision. It is a verdict that after more than 10 years of delays, the National Government has effectively said that the long wait is over.
Unused funds are the cost of indecision. And when a project of this scale fails to move while money sits idle, confidence is not only weakened; it disappears. There were several factors for the cause of the delay though. One of them, to my mind, is politics. A change of the city’s administration goes with it a change in the route design of CBRT.
To avoid paying the “commitment fees” or penalties for holding on to the unused money, the Department of Finance asked for the cancellation of the funds. The government realized it could not finish the work before the project’s official deadline in September 2026 due to several big problems that caused the delays.
Now, the burden shifts squarely to City Hall. Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival inherits not just a project but also a problem. To proceed without full national backing is to walk a narrow path between finishing something and finishing it right. A scaled-down CBRT may be easier to finish but difficult to justify. A redesigned system may be politically convenient, but operationally compromised.
But Mayor Archival isn’t losing hope, even with the loss of $84.9 million. He stated that the City Government may now pursue a public-private partnership (PPP), inviting private companies to help fund and complete the project.
In a press statement, Archival admitted that he is not aware of the details of the cancellation of the funding. “If it gets canceled, then probably the lender saw that it cannot be implemented now. What we will do is find a way to bring back funding,” he said.
The CBRT was designed to make traveling in Cebu City safer, faster and cleaner. Although the World Bank is withdrawing a large portion of its direct funding, it may still help connect the City Government with private partners.
And here comes Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who is the father of this CBRT concept during his term as city mayor, insisting on the original route, a reminder of what the project was meant to be before delays, disputes and shifting priorities took their toll. He urged Malacañang and the World Bank to review deviations from the initial design.
Osmeña, in a statement to the press, traced the origins of the CBRT concept to the 1990s in a proposed resolution filed before the City Council. His administration championed the concept, inspired by the integrated transport model of Curitiba in Brazil. The planners envisioned the project to run from Barangay Talamban in the north to Bulacao and Pardo in the south. The project serves as a mass transit backbone for commuters, particularly the urban poor.
“The people of Cebu, who have patiently waited for a mass transit solution, deserve a BRT system that honors its original intent, serves its rightful beneficiaries and fulfills the promise made to the city for decades,” that resolution stated.
According to Osmeña, the subsequent realignments undermined the original intent of the project. He specifically pointed to the shift of Phase 1 from the original Talamban-to-Bulacao corridor to a route connecting SM Seaside City Cebu at the South Road Properties to Ayala Center Cebu.
Osmeña said these deviations diminished the accessibility for the very commuters the system was meant to serve and have contributed to delays and additional public costs. The changes eroded public trust in the transport project.
But this is no longer a simple debate over alignment. A perfect route is meaningless if the buses never run. What Cebu faces today is not a technical problem. It is a test of governance. Can leaders agree on a plan, commit to it and deliver? Or will this, like too many projects before it, be redesigned into irrelevance? Or would it be another white elephant project?
Because every delay has a price. Cebu City has been paying it in traffic, lost time, and daily frustration. The tragedy of the CBRT was never that it was flawed; it was that it was possible. Unless something changes decisively and urgently — it may remain exactly that: a solution Cebu City once had, then let slip away.