Infra lack: We wasted 4 years under PNoy

There is no question that the Aquino Regime has purposely postponed or stopped many infrastructure projects, especially those that remained unfinished during the term of then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the simple reason that they used the monies that were prepared for those projects as "savings" and put them all in the Disbursement Acceleration Program so that they could shift or transfer them to their special projects. It is for this very reason why Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad has to face the Office of the Ombudsman for the misuse of this fund.

I can name two such major projects… the Metro Manila Drainage dredging project that would have been done by the Dutch, which could have minimized the flooding in Metro Manila and the proposed Northern Railway by China. I'm sure that there is more, I just forgot their titles and purposes. Herein lies the problem… infrastructure planning in this country largely depends on the political establishment that only makes plans within their three-year term. Of course the President has a longer six-year term. But then even the Office of the President doesn't have a planning office.

During the 90's in Cebu City when we embarked on the massive road widening project called the Metro Cebu Development Projects which came from the Central Visayas Regional Projects  we did have a planning office for the ten years that we implemented the MCDP I, II & III. But when those projects were finished and the offices shut down… so too was the planning office shut down. In Singapore, they have a permanent planning office that plans for the next 30 years. This is our problem.

Last Wednesday, no less than Ayala Corp. chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Ayala   spoke before the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation  Informed Senior Officials Meeting  forum at the Makati Shangri-La where JAZA called for a massive infrastructure spending from the government and the private sector before some 400 delegates.

JAZA said, "Based on the recent Global Competitiveness report of the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranks 91st out of 144 countries. It is moving up quite quickly, probably the fastest. But, from an infrastructure point of view, and in terms of the quality, it is still low compared with Apec related countries."  We know too well that JAZA supported Pres. Benigno Aquino III to the hilt, yet he is just too polite to call a spade, a spade!

This is why for the last four years, we've tasked the Aquino Regime for these infrastructure projects, especially for us here in Cebu where we got nothing! Mind you, the road widening in Mandaue City and in V. Rama Ave. is not a new infrastructure project as it is merely a maintenance project of the DPWH, shifting from asphalt to cement and putting up a drainage.

What Cebu today direly needs is that parallel road to Escario St., which I had been harping about for the last ten years while I was CITOM chairman. I already predicted when I put up the traffic lights along Gorordo Ave. that traffic would get worse in Escario St. and it is already happening. The solution to ease traffic along Escario St. is to create a parallel street from V. Rama along the Guadalupe Barangay Hall all the way to Villalon Drive then on to Gochan Hill and exit at the University of the Philippines grounds. This way, motorists from Guadalupe who wish to go to the AsiaTown IT Park don't need to pass Escario St.

Incidentally if there is anything that the DPWH is doing right, you may have noticed that they are currently widening that side of the flyover in Ayala Shopping Center from Grand Convention Center. This is one road widening project that we've pushed Rep. Raul del Mar for funding, thus effectively halving that road into two lanes so that vehicles turning right to Escario St. don't have to cue like what is happening today.

Another DPWH project that few people may have noticed is the widening of F. Sotto St. from the Borromeo Caltex Station towards the Redemptorist Church or Iglesia ni Cristo so it becomes a two-way road. This project was planned 10 years ago, which would allow motorists to make a left turn from Mango Ave. towards the Iglesia, then drive on towards Arch. Reyes Ave. This was supposed to have a flyover but those in the Livable Cebu movement stopped this project. Anyway, I'm glad that the DPWH has proceeded with this road even without the flyover so that by the time traffic gets worse in that corner, we know whom to blame.

Mind you, this is merely shifting the number of motorists going all the way to Inmaculada as their final destination to the Ayala Shopping Center or to Banilad. By having this project, DPWH have effectively split the number of motorists so that those who have no need to pass by Inmaculada would now use this newly refurbished road to go to Ayala or Banilad.