A challenge for Cebuano engineers

I left our house at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to join the Christmas tree lighting of Paquito and Marissa Unchuan at the White Sands Resort in Mactan. I left earlier than usual, and in an hour, I was already at the foot of the Fernan Bridge. Not bad. However, the sad part was when we exited the Fernan Bridge; it took nearly another hour to reach White Sands Resort at 6:15 p.m. Of course, the delay can be blamed to the horrendous traffic en route the resort area, which in my mind should never have been allowed to happen. The City of Lapu-Lapu really needs to widen the national road to the resort area, which the previous government failed to do. So I wish they can do this now.

Early morning yesterday, I got a call from Vice Mayor Michael Rama commenting on my column about our great loss of the two mega bridges that would have connected Cebu to Negros Oriental and Cebu to Bohol. Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Central Visayas director Edgar Tabacon revealed to the media that the proposed Cebu-Bohol link bridge and the Cebu-Negros link bridge are not in the revised lineup purportedly due to engineering problems. As I have pointed out, the issue of lack of engineering was totally wrong to scrap the project.

Hence, I challenge our Cebuano engineers at the University of San Carlos (USC) Engineering Department, University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJR), Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), Cebu Technological University, or University of the Philippines-Cebu to present this “engineering problem” to their students and present to the officials of the city as to how they can solve this problem. Meanwhile, I asked Vice Mayor Rama to come up with a resolution condemning the DPWH for surrendering these mega projects because of their engineering problems.

Talking about failure of the previous administration, Cebu City had former mayor Tomas Osmeña proudly telling people of what he has done in the 20 years in power. But in those 20 years, he failed to give us a proper water supply since he only put his political allies in the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) who have no idea of our water issues. Mayor Osmeña, who was into infrastructure, also failed miserably in fixing our major roads, when he could have fixed them a long time ago.

All Cebuanos born and living in Cebu know too well that many of our roads in Cebu City are like snakes sleeping after a huge meal. Many of our roads are wide then they suddenly get narrow when it reaches the corner. A case in point is Echavez St., which is very narrow along the corner of Mango Ave. and gets wide in the middle, then narrows again along the corner of Sikatuna St. Then-mayor Osmeña was allied to all the presidents and their political parties in all these years, yet he never fixed this problem.

I challenge you to pass through Echavez St. then turn left towards Sikatuna St. where it is wide along Zapatera Elementary School, then narrow again as it exits towards Imus St. In my book, a good mayor should fix this problem that has been there since I was born and I hope this time, Mayor Edgar Labella would fix those roads that the previous mayor failed to solve. Also as you cross towards T. Padilla St., that corner also needs to be widened so that motorists can exit into Imus St. rather than turn left only.

Meanwhile, one of the major traffic congestions that motorist suffer every day is the road between A.S. Fortuna Ave. all the way to M.L. Quezon Ave. Why is this road not wide, but after ML. Quezon Ave. it widens again all the way to Talamban proper. This is due to the fact that during our Metro Cebu Development Program (MCDP), Mayor Osmeña agreed with then-mayor Ouano to widen A.S. Fortuna Ave. using the budget along Banilad Road from A.S. Fortuna to M.L. Quezon Ave. This is the only reason why until today that road has not yet been widened and I call it a political move.

The best thing to do then would have been to widen the Banilad Road all the way to Talamban and use the MCDP funds to widen A.S. Fortuna in the following budget year.

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