Why can't Mayor Rama listen to good advice?
It just gets my gall when Department of Public Works & Highways official Engr. Fernando Cruz revealed that the current sidewalk program being installed in all the major streets of Cebu City was constructed too high in order to prevent motor vehicles from parking on the sidewalk. Come on, folks! We already know that the work of DPWH is an example of incompetence to the highest degree… so now they have to lie to the public? Since when did DPWH officials care for our traffic problems?
I don't know how many columns I have already written exposing the incompetence of DPWH, especially in fixing all the roads in Mandaue City simultaneously causing daily traffic where they get the curse and ire of motorists. Now they tell you that they are building our sidewalks so high so no cars can park on them? Let me say it here…that's a lot of crap!
Frankly speaking, I have always thought that they raised the sidewalks higher than it should be in order to prepare for the eventual re-asphalting of the road, where in this country, more often than not, the raised sidewalks would now be at the same level as the road. But DPWH officials did not use this logical explanation, which people would have bought. So now if indeed DPWH wants to help our traffic, it should work 24/7 including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays just like the rest of the modern world that often has to fix their busy roads.
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There is no question that Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is in big trouble when he ordered a newly-constructed coffee shop owned by businessman Adrian Lee along Don Jose Avila St. (formerly Camias St.) to be closed for lack of a business permit. If I had a previous knowledge of this issue, it is because I knew for a fact that a few years ago, Mayor Rama ordered to demolish Alejandro's Restaurant situated in that very same place.
Yes, Alejandro's Restaurant is owned by Alexis Yap who has since moved to the Century Plaza Complex after his restaurant was demolished. I will never forget that Alejandro's Restaurant was former Mayor Tomas Osmeña's favorite restaurant because his favorite dish then was Relynong Talong, which Alejandro's Restaurant still serves today.
You may ask, why was Alejandro's demolished in the first place? The official excuse was that Don Jose Avila Street was to be widened. So on Feb.1, 2012, due to this road widening plan to set back the road, Mayor Rama demolished Alejandro's. Just imagine that restaurant was there for 20 years and they were paying the lot owner Didith Labra rental for the lot. Then by the mere wave of his hand, Mayor Rama demolished a restaurant for no apparent reason. The road-widening plan was at best a farce!
I have been in the Regional Development Council for 20 years and I was a director of the CITOM board since the early 90's until I took over as chairman of CITOM from 2000 to 2005. I returned as a board member of CITOM in the Year 2007 and I will tell you that I have never heard nor seen of any road widening plans for that road in Don Jose Avila. In fact, that road is sufficiently wide even today. Incidentally this road is named after my paternal grandfather.
Apparently, the Labra family sold it to Mr. Adrian Lee, who later secured a building permit from the Office of the Building Official to construct his coffee shop with complete parking facilities. This permit was given and construction proceeded and soon he was operating his coffee shop. Then out of the blue, Mayor Rama ordered this shop to be shut down and you know the rest of the story from the reports in the local newspapers.
Mind you, since I had a personal knowledge about the history of this case, I had a serious talk with Mayor Rama not once, but twice to warn him that he was going to be in hot water if he insisted on the closure of this coffee shop. But not many people know why Mayor Rama is doing this. He is helping the owner of the property behind the coffee shop who was his old pal during their days at the Cebu Oxygen and Acetylene Company. By widening Don Jose Avila, the lot owner would have a wide frontage for his property, which by the way, he got from his aunt, Tiya Niting Lozada, from a very hotly contested court case, which I will not yet reveal.
In short, Mayor Rama was merely doing the biding of this "Influence peddler" to widen the road so that his property would have a frontage. While I would like to believe that Mayor Rama had nothing to personally gain from helping his friend, however, he is doing it for the wrong reasons simply because it was pointless for the City of Cebu to widen that road. If he widened Juana Osmeña Street, Cebuanos would have cheered him on. I don't know why Mayor Rama no longer listens to good advice especially that elections are coming very soon and he can't afford mishaps like this one!
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For response to this article, please write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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