Cempark junks Citom request to use its road
The management of Cebu Memorial Park, Inc. has turned down the request of the City Traffic Operations Management to allow its road to be used as alternative route by affected motorists of the ongoing construction of flyover on
In a letter to CITOM executive officer Arnel Tancinco, Juan Ramon Garcia, chairman and president of Cempark, explained that the board of directors of the cemetery deliberated on the matter and decided not to allow its private premises and roads be used by the public.
Last December 27, Tancinco asked the Cempark management to open its private road to allow private vehicles to pass temporarily to help decongest the traffic at the vicinity of the flyover construction site.
However, Garcia said their plots and services were sold exclusively and allowing the public to use its private road and premises will disturb the solemnity, serenity and privacy of the place.
He also cited that they have daily burials and opening its roads will cause traffic and difficulty in maintaining the solemnity and serenity that their clients expect.
Garcia further explained that opening the roads will expose them to security risk, adding that the roads were built for occasional use of lot owners and never designed to accommodate heavy volume of traffic.
“This (allowing public to use it) severely affect our roads and the surrounding plots,” he said.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said the reasons pointed by the cemetery’s management are valid but he added that if traffic in the construction site gets intolerable and creates public disorder, he would be forced to exercise his police power to open the private road to be used as alternative route.
He said that it is not the malicious intent of the city to disturb the serenity of the place but “I also look for the greater good of the city.”
The mayor cited a provision under the Local Government Code that allows a mayor to exercise options to effect whatever is necessary for the general welfare of the public at the expense of the minority.
Osmeña said that if Cempark is concerned over its security and maintenance of its roads, the city is also willing to extend financial assistance to the cemetery and help it maintain the road.
“But I will not make that dream until a week of intolerable traffic that would create public disorder… Then we will exercise whatever is necessary,” he added.
The mayor said the city has already responded to Cempark’s letter and let them know the options the city may take in the event the traffic in the flyover construction site gets worse.
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