Should we have a BRT, LRT, or a monorail?

For our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky, I submit that I rarely get totally surprised by my guests and this was one show where I was surprised as this show was about waste-to-energy venture, something that I recently wrote about. This technology is something you can find in many Asian cities like in Japan and Taiwan. This is something to replace the closed sanitary landfill near the South Road Properties, more so that a firm with this technology has been talking to the officials of the City of Cebu.

Tonight we bring you the Aquilini Mactan Renewable Energy, Inc. a Vancouver-based company that has invested $20 million in the first ever waste-to-energy venture that I have ever known to open in the Philippines. I learned from this show that this facility is located in a 1.5-hectare facility at the Cebu Light Industrial Park in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.

To talk about this Waste to Energy technology that is already in Mactan, we have with us the top man of Aquilini Mactan Renewable Energy, Inc. President John Negrin and President Jesus Jayme Jr. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s Channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s Channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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There’s so much fuss about the issue plaguing the Bus Rapid Transit program for Cebu City and why it should be stopped until further studies are made, while the Light Rail Transit is being put in place to serve Metro Cebu. If my good friend, Cebu City Consultant Joel Yu had his way, we should have both systems. But then Joel knows too well that we can’t have our cake and eat it too! But on the other hand, even Cebu City itself is open to other mass transport systems.

If you recall, the headlines of The FREEMAN last May 20, 2017 blared, “Monorail study in Cebu City on.” This was a report that emanated from Mayor Tomas Osmeña himself that at no cost to the City of Cebu he signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Philtram Transportation Consortium, Inc. to have a case study for a monorail system here. I already wrote last May 23 a column entitled, “Why can’t I Google Philtram? Who are they?” Allow me to reprint what I wrote just for the record.

“Mayor Tomas Osmeña signed a memorandum of agreement with Philtram Transportation Consortium, Inc. (PTCI) to study a proposal for a monorail system for Cebu City. I don’t want to rain on Mayor Osmeña’s parade, but I do have a very important question? Who is the consortium and who is its co-founder Arnold Ray Alagar?

In today’s times you can Google any information you need and since we don’t know who Philtram I checked his name and company in Google. The only thing that comes out in Google is the news story that was splashed in the local media in Cebu. If Cebu City has to embark on a major mass transit project, we should get top foreign companies with years of experience in running subways or railways. So again, who is Arnold Alagar or Philtram? Are they carpetbaggers who fooled Mayor Osmeña into signing that MOA with him? Perhaps Mayor Osmeña should tell us why he signed this MOA with Philtram?”

Mind you, I never got any reply from Mayor Osmeña on why he signed this MOA with Philtram, nor has Philtram written me to give information about them. This brings us to the question, “What if the Philtram studies reveal that the monorail is better than BRT? Would Mayor Osmeña agree to also put the brakes on the BRT and accept a monorail system? What about the LRT? Someone ought to tell us that the LRT is a far better system than a monorail.

Mind you, I rode the monorail two years ago when we went to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I have no negative comments about this system, except that it is not a widely used mass transportation system. The only monorail that I know being used is in Seattle.

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