The listing of such projects in Cebu City as concreting existing roads where about a billion pesos from imperial Manila shall be allocated for is like the poem I learned in grade school about shooting an arrow into the air and not knowing where it would fall. This list was published few days ago and the accompanying story wanted to sound like it would be a tremendous achievement of the national leadership like the sharp arrow streaking into the air but since it is targeted at a useless nowhere, it really means nothing much.
The city government, being simply the beneficiary of this apparent graciousness, is probably in no other position than to welcome the capital flow. Our local leaders can and should perhaps thank the national demigods for this seeming concern but it would have been far better had those in the high totem pole of leadership consulted our officials on the real infra-structure need of the city.
Concreting existing roads in the city is not a top priority. Well, it may smoothen the bumps in our travel, but the fresh concrete pouring will not add space for the bourgeoning number of vehicles running. It is the same old lineal kilometers of available road that we have had for decades which the thousands of new vehicles cannot longer squeeze in.
The answer to road congestion brought about by increasing road users is quite simple. New and carefully planned roads are what we need. If money is available, it should be targeted at opening streets of the kind that are dissimilar to the narrow ones our forefathers built for us.
First example. Take the case of Colon Street. An obelisk has been erected at near the corner of Mabini Street to publicize its historical importance as the oldest street in the country. Vehicles from the central part of the business district running on Colon literally funnel to a narrow Mabini street. Why do not transportation and traffic moguls think of punching a wide road from that corner of Mabini towards the arteries like M. J Cuenco and the MacArthur Boulevard that connect the north reclamation area and the South Road Properties? It is not going to be a long new road, but when it is opened, it will help tremendously the flow of vehicular traffic.
Second example. San Jose de la Montana (or Juan Luna Avenue or Pope John XXIII Avenue [?], I am quite sorry to be unable to tell, really what is the name of this road now), aside from serving the heavy volume of traffic for the port area and a large mall, is the first main road to absorb the traffic coming from the north. Yes, it is 4-lane road, but vehicles, because of their sheer huge volume, literally crawl on it. If a road is opened from M. J. Cuenco Avenue, somewhere in Subangdaku, Mandaue City, to cut across Casals Village and Villa Aurora towards Gov. Manuel Cuenco, not far from the corporate headquarters of Aboitiz Group of companies, that will accelerate travel, reduce traffic jams and open more areas for investments.
Third example. The winding road that I used to travel, two decades ago, going to the mountain barangays exists today. Many stretches are concreted but the width has remained substantially the same. They were good to absorb traffic then when few families in the mountains owned transportation units, but because necessity demands upon the villagers to buy their own vehicles, this road is now heavily congested. A better and wider road is present necessity. Government must undertake building it now and here is every reason to ask our engineers to complete the plan for funding.
Actually, I am sure that topnotch engineers occupying high positions in government know much better than what I suggested. I only enumerated the examples above to rib them of the need. The money intended for concreting our roads maybe helpful to our travel, but putting funds into building new roads can mean more.