Villarete warns Cebuanos anew against LRT

CEBU, Philippines – Former Cebu City Planning and Development Coordinator and project head of the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit project, Engr. Nigel Paul Villarete, warned the Cebuanos that if they choose the proposed Light Rail Transit, it will have the same fate as the pending Metro Rail Transit 7 in Manila that has been delayed for nearly a decade now due to lack of funding.

MRT-7 was submitted in 2002, but its implementation this year or even next year is still doubtful, Villarete said.

He said that compared to the BRT, which already has an assured US$350 million funding from the World Bank, LRT may not get the needed funding just like what happened to MRT-7.

"The latest estimate is last quarter of 2011, because no bank is interested in funding it (MRT-7). If you insist on pushing the LRT, we will have to wait until 2021 to see it. If traffic is not bad for you and you want to wait till 2021, then go push the LRT," he said.

MRT-7, once it pushes through, will be the fourth rapid transit line in Metro Manila. The proposal is to build a 23-kilometer line with 14 stations that will traverse Quezon City and part of Caloocan City and will end at San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan.

As of August this year, the Department of Transportation and Communications informed that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is considering financing the project.

Villarete raised several other points to emphasize that LRT is not for Cebu which is supported by the result of several feasibility studies done in the past.

"Why do we insist on a system that will cost us US$32 million per kilometer, but can carry fewer passengers than one which will cost US$7 Million per kilometer? What I can't understand is why we insist on one which will cost the Cebuanos P15 to P25 fare per passenger, subsidized by the government at P2 billion a year instead of one which the fare is maybe less than P10 at the same speed and comfort, and without subsidy," Villarete added.

The result of the pre-feasibility study for the proposed BRT project in Cebu showed that the BRT will cost about US$7.2 million per kilometer or a total of US$115.2 for the 16-kilometer bus line.

Based on the current jeepney fare, World Bank consultants who conducted the pre-feasibility study projected a revenue of US$15 million a year from BRT operation, which they said, is already enough to sustain its operation including the maintenance.

There will even be a revenue surplus of US$1.5 million which may be used to pay back the infrastructure loan.

Earlier, Villarete said that an LRT station is inconvenient to the passengers than the BRT station because people will have to walk half a kilometer to go to an LRT station, then climb up the stairs up to third or fourth floors while to go to a BRT station, people just have to stroll about 200 meters and climb few steps.

According to him, the LRT is 'regressive infrastructure,' adding "this is building what we don't need and building more than what we need."

"It will happen to us when we build a US$603 million mass transport system and the government is forced to bleed P2 billion a year to support a fare which the poor in Cebu can not afford," he added.

Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas, in a phone interview, said that Villarete is entitled to his own opinion.

"Nobody can guarantee (if LRT Cebu will become like MRT-7). That's his opinion, he's entitled to it," Gullas said. (FREEMAN)