Megawide/GMR execs at the 888 News Forum

Yesterday at the 888 Forum held at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, we finally met the Megawide/GMR representatives who are currently on a road show here in Cebu hoping to entice Cebuanos to buy in on the P14.5 billion expansion project for the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) where they won as the highest bidder. But the Department of Transportation & Communications (DOTC) has not yet awarded this project because of certain problems that arose after the bidding process.

Because of the numerous complaints… notably the lack of a second runway that should have been packaged in this airport deal, seven out of the nine Cebuano members of Congress has asked the Congressional Committee on Transportation for an inquiry into the bidding process. I fired off a series of questions especially on that second runway and Mr. Andrew Acquaah-Harrison, deputy chief executive officer of the Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport somehow towed the DOTC line that a second runway was not necessary at the moment and that if they found the need for a new runway they can ask the DOTC to do it for their group.

Clearly these guys do not know how slow government works on infrastructure development. I cited to them the 300-meter Escario Street widening that took all 10 years to complete and the 9-year road widening of M. Velez Street beside the Cebu Provincial Capitol which remains unfinished today. If you ask me, if this Megawide/GMR airport deal that they won only has a 25-year life span…it just makes me wonder how they can recoup their P14.5 billion investment unless they speed up the promotion and development of MCIA, which we want them to do if finally the DOTC awards them the deal.

So right now, the ball is back on the court of the DOTC to explain to the members of Congress, why there are so many questions on this deal? When I was a member of the MCIAA board as far as 15 years ago I already trumpeted the need for a second runway. But my cries fell on deaf ears and today the place where a second runway was planned to be built is now a huge housing development and will surely cost the MCIA huge amounts of money just to move them out to make room for a second runway. Meanwhile, I advised the Megawide/GMR people that they must convince Cebuanos that this deal is good for Cebu… and not just good for the top honchos at the DOTC.

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Rep. Wilfredo Caminero is proposing to split the 2nd district in the Province of Cebu into two legislative districts and filed House Bill No. 3149 which would add one more legislative district, making it seven districts in all. What is happening here? Why has Rep. Caminero agreed with his predecessor to split the 2nd district? Is it necessary to do so? Or is this a plan to share their political kingdoms? If you ask me, before the other congressmen in Cebu vote on this proposed split, they should first look at the consequences of this act.

While adding legislative districts is a better option than splitting the Province of Cebu as in the Sugbuak Days, what all the Cebuano members of Congress should do is find out if we are underrepresented in Congress? Here in Cebu City we too need to take a second look and find out whether Cebu City needs a 3rd or a 4th legislative district? But I recall what then Mayor Tomas Osmeña warned us… that adding more legislative districts in Cebu City would be an enormous cost because it would mean that if we added a 3rd legislative district, that would also mean adding a new set of eight city councilors and if you look at the Legislative Building in Cebu City today, it only has room for 16 city councilors.

I fully agree that this is a problem, however the greater problem is we constituents of Cebu City are underrepresented, and a situation that should be corrected by our politicians. With this in mind, months ago, I wrote an article that the solution to this problem is to call for a genuine political reform. That can only mean an amendment to the 1987 Constitution… which as you all know Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III is totally against it.

Since we cannot yet have any charter changes, allow me to share what I believe is the solution to this problem and that means getting rid of the city councilors or municipal councilors and in their place, put in the barangay captains to directly represent their own barangays. This is food for thought for you folks out there and something worthy of a debate.

With this, the people in their respective barangays would now carefully choose their barangay captains who would now double as a city councilor. This move solves a huge budget problem and it would allow for more legislative districts because we won't be adding more city councilors.

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