A forgotten beautiful project

During the first term of Her Honor, Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia, I wrote about her peculiar management style of running the affairs of the province. Instead of observing the rule of tackling easier problems first, she seemed to meet the more monumental ones ahead of the minor issues. While some observer-friends of mine, mostly on the other side of the political dimension, thought it was all because of her being in government for the first time, I was willing to bet on her enthusiasm.

Specifically, I brought to her table the matter of a possible link between Cebu City and Toledo City. Her reply was most unexpected. I received from the lovely lady governor a basketful of flowers and chocolate with a note promising to look into it.

Many things occupy the mind of Gov. Garcia. It is not unusual that some concerns are buried in the huge pile of documents. That might have happened to the topic I wrote about few years ago. The flowers have long wilted and the chocolate fully consumed. My opinion may be inconsequential, but I wish to remind the governor of this project.

Linking the two cities of Cebu and Toledo and their approximate distances, from one city hall to the other, are (1) the Mananga road, 49 kilometers; (2) the Naga-Uling link, 59 kilometers and (3) the Transcentral highway, 66 kilometers.

There is however a viable much shorter connection of roughly 45 kilometers. Gov. Garcia can undertake this project and complete it in due time as a priority item without being labeled as having usurped someone else's vision.

Where does it commence on the western side of Cebu island? It jumps off, as a concrete road, from Dumlog and goes up to the direction of Canlumampaw or a length of about 3 kilometers. If we then measure the distance from the city hall, this concrete pavement then covers some 7 kilometers already.

On the side of Cebu City, this link starts from the Bon-bon area, which is accessible from Lahug thru a portion of the transcentral highway. Few years ago, there was a concreting of this road that was commenced right off the bridge. Comparable if not better than the transcentral highway in width and obvious engineering, it inched its way near Barangay Sudlon and came to halt. All told, from Cebu City hall, it has probably covered a distance of about 20 kilometers already. As it is though, it is a wasteful expense serving less visible objective.

These two ends can be connected after working on less than 20 kilometers, more or less. It will provide another artery to the commuters of these two cities, open up the inner barangays to growth and development and still skirt a mounting traffic pressure which the operations of the Atlas mines brings. The port of Toledo is getting to be busier. Surely, there must be users of that port, maybe coming from or going to Negros island, who want to bypass the humongous traffic at Lutopan and using this link is the best route.

Politically, this project will help boost Gov. Garcia's image. It is publicly known that she and His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña are not, as I write this column, the best of friends, yet. The mayor has not, in these 20 years of his administration, considered building highways to connect the city's mountain barangays. It can develop to be a governance issue. With one stroke, the lady governor will have shown that what the mayor had failed, can, in fact, be accomplished. If they be dragged to each other's company by some political realities, both can complement each other using this highway project.

The road will also be viewed as a lasting assistance by the provincial government to the local government unit of Toledo City. It will be a political plus too because judging from the alliances of the last hustings, the city officials worked for the group opposed to Gov. Garcia.

 Anyway, this road has to be constructed for all kinds of motivation one can conjure. When this will be done, I will be the one to send Gov. Gwen a basket full of flowers and chocolates.

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