EDITORIAL - In Cebu City, political will is only for politics

The Cebu City ordinance banning the entry of jeepneys from Mandaue City into the downtown area may seem harsh and unjust. Some may even question its constitutionality considering that it restrict movement.

On the other hand, the City of Cebu has every right to maintain order within its borders, including the right to regulate traffic in pursuit of that right. If it thinks banning jeepneys from Mandaue City takes it closer to its desired order, then it will have to exercise that right.

So where does that leave the people, especially the workers and students who, already agonizing from low wages and escalating costs, will now have to fork over a few extra pesos for the additional rides they will have to take to get to their destinations?

It is not clear whose fault it is that such a chaotic situation has now descended on the lives of the Cebuanos. True enough, there is order in the streets with the elimination of a lot of jeepneys from Mandaue City. But that is a temporary respite.

How far will the order last until it is replaced by other jeepneys that keep plowing unrestrained into the road network daily because of the profligate granting of franchises by those who are only out to make a quick buck without regard for the ill effects of their actions?

Will Cebu City soon ban jeepneys from other places? Our guess is it will have to, since either it does not have the money to embark on more concrete solutions, such as erecting elevated roadways, or its legislature is simply limited in foresight as to prefer quick fix solutions.

Banning jeepneys from Mandaue City now and maybe from other places soon is one such quick fix solution. Nothing can be quicker than banning jeepneys from city streets and, voila, no more jeepneys.

Such a quick fix solution, resorted to without considering its ill effects, is not unlike smashing your little finger with a hammer to get rid of a toothache. It may indeed get rid of the toothache, but you now have a problem with the finger.

But what can you expect from a city leadership that exercises political will only on matters that has got something to do with, well, politics, like driving away vendors from a rival city or closing the SRP. Interestingly, the jeepneys come from a new rival city.

Yet take a look at Cebu City's streets, for which it spent a fortune to widen. The added lanes are now parking places for garageless vehicles or spaces for small businesses, bringing the streets back to their original sizes, but the city leadership has not seemed to notice.