Cortes calls for concession on Cebu-Mandaue road woes

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Jonas Cortes is calling on the traffic groups in Mandaue City and Cebu City to reach a compromise in dealing with the plight of Mandaue jeepneys that allegedly continue to violate a Cebu City ordinance.

“I hope that they will be open-minded enough, be civil and discuss, and be considerate enough,” Cortes said.

Traffic enforcers in Cebu City continue to apprehend jeepneys that violate City Ordinance 1837, an ordinance that bans Mandaue City PUJs and other intra-city jeepneys from plying the major thoroughfares of Cebu City and allowing them only to load and unload passengers in designated terminals.

Cortes said he does not believe that Cebu City’s strict stance is a form of retaliation after Mandaue City banned garbage trucks from other local government units and private firms engaged in disposing solid waste from passing the city. This decision is a bump on the plan of Cebu City to deposit its garbage to the landfill in Consolacion.

What worries him, Cortes said, are the students and ordinary workers who have become victims to the situation.

City Traffic Operations Management Board (CITOM) Executive Officer Rafael Yap said earlier that Cebu City will not hesitate to impound the jeepneys of drivers who violate the city ordinance for the third time.

But Cortes is asking Cebu City to be more considerate, considering that Mandaue City has accommodated the North Bus Terminal and the Cebu City abattoir at the North Reclamation Area. After all, Mandaue City has always considered Cebu City its “big brother,” Cortes said.

As far as the garbage truck ordinance is concerned, Cortes explained that the same is but a form of “street regulation management” to also regulate traffic. Cortes fears that if traffic in Mandaue City will not be regulated, people from other local government units will be discouraged to visit the city, something that will not be good for the four malls that will open there in the next few months.

Vehicles coming from the north and south of Cebu that pass by Mandaue City have contributed greatly to the traffic congestion in the city’s streets.

“Warning pa tong ato if sigehon dyud mapugos dyud ta ug panakop nila,” he said, referring to the garbage trucks that pass the city. For now, the ban is being implemented in selected roads. – (FREEMAN)