Scenic south marred by bad roads

I had the opportunity to travel to southern Cebu last weekend for a work-related matter and spent a night in Oslob. The town has progressed over the years mainly due to its tourism, which features the whale sharks in Barangay Tan-awan.

My team and I stayed at a superbly-designed, high-quality hotel in the town. The view of the sea at sunrise from our hotel terrace was incredibly soothing. Cebu's southern region is also known for its heritage structures and scenic daytime topography, where the mountains meet the sea.

It’s just a pity that most parts of the road stretching from Carcar City (the worst) all the way to Santander and Samboan are patchy at best and shamefully potholed and bumpy at worst. For someone who is used to the relatively well-paved roads of northern Cebu, driving on the roads in southern Cebu is an appalling and even scary experience.

I am not exaggerating. It is appalling because this has been a problem for years already. It seems that road widening works and repairs on this stretch of Cebu Island are never-ending. One would hope that the road affected by the widening works would be finished soon, but after six months, when one happens to pass by these areas again, it seems nothing much has changed.

One would wonder who is at fault. Is it the contractors? Is it the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which has jurisdiction over this stretch of the national road? Or is it the private landowners who make road-right-of-way acquisition difficult? Or all of them?

It is also a scary experience to pass by these roads because, aside from being poorly lit at night, the poor design and maintenance of the highway make it a dangerous route for motorists. Large, unrepaired potholes are scattered across the lanes. Bumps and uneven portions protrude awkwardly from the road surface, jolting vehicles. Newly-widened portions of the highway suddenly narrow back into two-lane roads without any warning signage or reflectorized markers, catching drivers unfamiliar with the route off-guard.

It's a long, agonizing drive, around two to three hours. That gave me time to think about what is really ailing this southern portion of Cebu. Even in the 1980’s, it was always known for its bad roads as far as I can recall. I figured it could be because large trucks to and from the neighboring island of Negros, crossing through the RORO system via Santander and Samboan, frequently pass by this highway.

But I figured this is not an excuse because I’ve seen roads in northern Mindanao that are well-paved and of good quality despite being frequently used as a main artery for trade and commerce. I also see many trailer trucks using the northern Cebu highway to and from Bogo or San Remigio, but the roads in the northern corridor are relatively fine.

So what could be the other cause? Ah, could it be the politicians? Maybe the politicians of southern towns and congressional districts in southern Cebu are not influential enough at the national level to assert for or lobby for more national funding to fix the roads within their jurisdiction.

It could also be corruption, I thought to myself. But corruption is everywhere and is not confined to any one place. It is common knowledge that contractors in this country make shortcuts in materials and construction quality to compensate for the SOP that some government officials demand for infrastructure projects. One time in southwestern Mindanao, I overheard a local exclaim that the roads there are of good quality and well-built because their politicians are not greedy and only take a 10% commission from contractors. I could only scratch my head. I pity those areas where leaders skim 30% or even as much as 50% of the project budget.

In any case, I think the key to fixing the roads of scenic and beautiful southern Cebu lies with its leaders. I hope that in the next elections, whoever the elected leaders are, they are influential and savvy enough to secure more projects for southern Cebu. And, if they cannot be immaculately clean, at least they are not greedy. It’s sad that we’re now settling for such hope --this sense of resignation.

Except for the bad roads, southern Cebu is really worth visiting and staying for both relaxation and remote work.