TWO skywalks along Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City may finally be out of the way. The skywalks, a.k.a. flyovers, have reportedly delayed civil works of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (CBRT) and were partly blamed for the further resetting of its completion to 2027.
Initially budgeted in 2017 at P16.307 billion, CBRT’s cost of building the 23-kilometer network, was raised by Neda to P28.78 billion in October 2023. And the Osmeña Boulevard skywalks have been an annoying public issue related to the project.
No date of actual removal of the two skywalks has been set. But it’s finally a “go,” Councilor Jerry Guardo told me Thursday, November 16 (2023).
One skywalk near Fuente Osmeña and another near Cebu Normal University will be demolished. Or, more precisely, will be disassembled in parts, and taken away for possible reuse by the City Government elsewhere.
MAJOR OBSTACLES REMOVED. The side issues that have blocked a ready answer to the principal question -- whether to remove the two skywalks or to retain them at their present location by a redesign that will fit into the BRT structure -- were finally resolved. They included:
OWNERSHIP ISSUE. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as builder and conduit for the national funds owned it. DPWH should have turned over ownership of the skywalks right after completion to the Cebu City Government, end-user of the facilities. DPWH did not. Not until Monday, November 6 (2023), when acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia acknowledged for the City receipt of ownership papers. City Administrator Collin Rosell promptly endorsed them and other documents to COA.
End-user/now-owner Cebu City Government had already expressed its sentiment about the issue of demolition or retention: Mayor Michael Rama last October 18 said he wanted the skywalks “removed and transferred” (“My decision is very simple,” he said. “Remove the skywalks.”) The City Council in a resolution (#16-1178-2023) issued a certificate of no-objection to their demolition. Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia’s November 6 acknowledgment and City Administrator Rosell’s endorsement to COA reaffirmed the position of the City.
DPWH REGION, DISTRICT HAD CLASHED. Earlier, DPWH regional office had issued a certificate of no-objection but left details of implementation to its Cebu City district office. The city district office said it would have a redesign that would allow retention of the two skywalks without disturbing or disrupting CBRT plans. As late as the week before the actual turnover of documents, the city D.E. told the City Council it found out that it could not transfer ownership of the skywalks as they were built with national funds and are located on national roads. Also, it would insist on keeping them by changing the skywalk's design.
That changed totally later. The DPWH regional office must have put its foot down. Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairman of the committee on laws, said, “We had a joint meeting, DPWH and City Hall, and came up with a unified decision.”
CUTIE DEL MAR’S CAUTION. Representative Rachel “Cutie” del Mar has wanted to save the two skywalks, citing in two letters to the CBRT managers their usefulness to students and other pedestrians.
CBRT project chief Norvin Imbong had sought a certificate of no objection from del Mar, whose dad, the late Raul del Mar, had secured the national funds for the two Osmeña Boulevard skywalks and several other “fly-overs,” as they were also known.
CBRT’s Imbong argued before the City Council that the redesign proposal is impractical, will entail high additional cost, will be “redundant” since there will be “pedestrian crossings” than the skywalks, and will continue the illegal and unsanitary use of the skywalks as “haven for street dwellers.”
Congresswoman del Mar told me Thursday, November 16 “it’s crucial to emphasize” that the skywalks were built with public funds.
“We must always steadfastly oppose an inefficient use of Cebuanos’ taxes, especially when alternatives exist.” Del Mar said that “if COA allows the needless waste of public resources and mismanagement of existing infrastructure, they will be answerable to our people and made to account.”
AFTER COA OK, it will be almost ministerial for OBO to issue the demolition permit as all other requirements were already met by CBRT. OBO, it may be recalled, suspended the permit for demolition only when the question of ownership of the two skywalks arose and DPWH district office took the position of saving them.
Apparently, OBO didn’t avail itself of the city’s right to demolish any structure that was built without city permit; the two skywalks allegedly didn’t secure OBO papers.
WHAT COA REVIEW WILL INVOLVE. In deciding on the request for demolition, COA is expected to give a lot of weight to the claim of CBRT managers that removal of the two skywalks is necessary for the project. But it’s also likely that it will look closely at the economics of it, whether doing away with the facilities is, as Congresswoman del Mar contends, waste of government resources and mismanagement of its infrastructures.
How much are the skywalks worth? An advice of allotment dated September 24, 1993, shown to me by Councilor Guardo, shows the total of P9.286 million plus for the two skywalks.
COA may also consider that the skywalks will be “disassembled, removed, transferred, and re-assembled for further use at another location” at no cost to the City Government. Guardo was asked by City Administrator Rosell to sponsor the resolution setting forth the city’s request/condition.
City Hall’s apparent point being this: Given the reuse of the skywalk parts and materials and depreciation of the facilities, demolition wouldn’t be a total loss.