A visible indicia of discrimination

At the onset of this week, radio and television reports coming from national news organizations screamed of unimaginable incidents of traffic jams taking place all over Metro Manila. It seemed that wherever Metro Manilans went, vehicles literally crawling bumper-to-bumper confronted them. The reporters were able to identify the on-going public works projects as the cause of the slow vehicular movements.

 Public Works authorities acknowledged that indeed, there were a number of government projects going on. Most of about 30 bridges, scattered in the major and thickly populated parts of Metro Manila were undergoing repairs while still others were scheduled to be fixed. There were also roads that had to be paved all over. Traffic moguls pointed to this spate of activities to be the culprit of the traffic turmoil.

 In a televised interview of a top ranking public works official, he admitted that their repair efforts are slowing down the flow of cars and trucks. He explained that as a necessary consequence, vehicles were not allowed to use some portions of the bridges, while concrete had yet to cure. There were also cases where traffic was completely rerouted away from the repairs.

 The official, quite politely, asked the public to understand. This has to be done, according to him, during this summer season because this is the best time to do this activity. In fact, he said that there are projects that require a longer period of time such that they may be concluded in August yet but just the same they had to start now while the hot is scorching.

 The people in Metro Manila are most fortunate. Our government leaders are trying their best to deliver basic services to them, assuming that we count the repairs of bridges and some stretches of roads as basic service. Considering that these projects are reportedly being undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways, I can only surmise that the national government is doing this. The present leadership of His Excellency President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, must have poured millions of pesos for these infrastructure projects and judging from the language of the public works official who was interviewed, local government officials might not have even asked for these.

 In Metro Cebu, we do not witness this frenetic kind of public works activity. Well, at least none along where I normally travel. We do complain of our share of traffic jams. But these are not the results of roadblocks deliberately put up by gangs of workers. In fact, they occur because either our streets are full of potholes and are therefore difficult to negotiate or are too narrow to handle the increasing volume of vehicles. In short, we, here in Cebu, have not complained about traffic slowdowns occasioned by road repairs because there are no such visible projects being undertaken.

 I use the number of complains on traffic problems aired by Metro Manilans to compare with what we do not have hereabouts to show the disparity of attention given by this government to similar problems. This standard may not be scientific, I must admit, but this is graphic. National government takes care of Metro Manila road networks but it chooses to neglect ours. We too, have bridges and stretches of roads that need to be concreted or have to be overlaid with a new coat of asphalt, if that is a preferred material, but it seems to me that there are no funds allocated for them. So, no work is being done on them.

 I am sure hundreds of millions of pesos are budgeted for the Metro Manila projects of about thirty bridges repaired simultaneously. Honestly, I am envious because I am unaware of funds released for similar infrastructure here in Cebu. Cebuanos must be second class citizens whose duty is to continue to pay our taxes so that these monies can be spent to better the lives of our brother citizens in Luzon.

To conclude, there is a hope that our national officials find time to tell us what is this discrimination all about and for our local leaders to demand from imperial Manila our share of public funds.