EDITORIAL - Road repairs, Cebu City style

The following observation did not come from this paper. It was shared with us by a growing number of perplexed Cebuanos who apparently can no longer keep to themselves what they have been observing, and failing to understand.

Here is their observation: "Why is it that they are tearing up and repairing perfectly good streets and yet completely ignoring those that truly need to be repaired?" The "they" there refers to the government, which has recently gone on a road-repairing binge.

Nothing wrong with road repairs. In fact they are among the most sought-after forms of public services by a public conscious of its expectations from government. But there is a good point there, after some checking and validating the observation.

For yes indeed, there is no arguing what the eye can actually see. We did see for ourselves the tearing up and repairing of streets that seem to be in good condition, even as the road repairers remained seemingly oblivious to the streets that did seem to need attention.

Admittedly, the people who passed on their observations to us are probably not experts on the quality and condition of roads. And while we share their observations, neither are we any better than those who made them. Moreover, we trust that the real experts -- the road repairers -- know what they are doing.

But there is a problem there. The road repairers may be experts in what they do. But they just follow what they are told to do. They do not make the choices on where to display their field of expertise. If they are told to repair a perfectly good road, they just go ahead and do it.

The real culprits are those who make the choices. It is not clear as of this writing who made the decisions on which roads to tear up and which to ignore. But whoever they eventually turn out to be, they have some explaining to do indeed.

The experts cannot invoke their expertise when it comes to judging the appearance of something in plain view, such as the condition of a road. Any fool can tell if a road is good or bad. All he has to do is walk or ride over it. Nothing is easier to differentiate than a smooth and even surface and a rough and bumpy one.

But while the road repairers and tearing up roads that are palpably smooth and even in order to repair them, they have seemingly left out the rough and bumpy ones. Maybe they will do it later. But don't you think it should have been the other way around -- tear up and repair the bad roads first and leave alone the good?