Starting today, that is if plans do not miscarry, jeepneys from Mandaue City will be allowed into Cebu City for the first time in many months. And while not all routes can do so, and it is only Manalili Street that they can pass through, that is already good enough for now.
For so long, residents of both cities suffered the inconvenience, not to mention the added cost, of having to take several rides to get to their destinations if they have to go from one city to the other.
Cebu City banned Mandaue City jeepneys owing, supposedly, to the traffic congestion they create. But then again, what major urban center in the country today suffers not from traffic congestion? Of the possible solutions to the problem, a selective ban is the most inappropriate.
As Cebu City authorities must have realized, the problem remained despite the ban. On the other hand, a new problem cropped up when Mandaue City retaliated by banning the passage of Cebu City garbage trucks to that city. Now that was a more telling blow.
However, the tit-for-tat was only a passing, if interesting, sideshow. For as officials on either side of the Mahiga Creek know, public interest loomed as the only real victim in the face-off, and deep in their hearts they knew they were not prepared to pay such high a price.
Officials of both cities hurriedly met to thresh out the issues and the gradual lifting of the jeepney ban was the first concrete positive development to emerge from that meeting. It is hoped that more meetings will be held to tackle more problems affecting these two neighbors.
Officials of both cities must realize that while Cebu City and Mandaue City are distinct, they are distinct only politically, being separate and independent local government units, each governed by a different set of officials.
But stripped of their political distinctions, both cities are Cebuano communities populated mostly by native Cebuanos, bound together by calling, friendship, and family relations. Where no walls ought to exist, let nobody erect one.