For the love of Cebu, let's widen our roads
During our taping on the K-12 Program of the Department of Education, Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD, President of the University of San Carlos intimated to me that they have agreed with the proposal of the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management and the Department of Public Works and Highways to move their fence so the Banilad-Talamban Road can be widened. I did not know that my good friend Bunny Pages was tasked as the chairman for the Banilad Talamban Task Force. Well, at least Bunny is learning fast on how things have gotten from bad to worse as far as traffic is concerned.
But he is starting in the right direction when they convinced USC to move back the fence in their Talamban Campus. I called up Bunny and he confirmed to me that Atty. Augusto "Gus" Go also agreed to set back his property across the Gaisano Country Mall. When I heard that, I immediately recognized one major problem - the SkyWalk that was funded by Sen. Serge Osmeña would have to be dismantled if it cannot be extended.
Richard Unchuan who has a property across the old Chevrolet dealership also agreed to widen his part of the road, while the report I read was that Bunny Pages also agreed to widen the portion of his school Bright Academy. Actually, I called up Bunny to clarify from him if my sister-in-law, Nanette Del Rosario-Avila who owns the property where his school stands already agreed to the widening of the road? Bunny told me that she did.
But what about the rest who have properties and buildings along the Banilad-Talamban Road? I hope that these people would also agree to give up their properties because it is beneficial for them to do so. If they do not like set back their properties, the Banilad-Talamban Road would choke in a couple of year's time and their businesses would lose. Already, people are calling the Ban-Tal Road as Cebu's EDSA and I fully agree with their assessment.
Finally, during the same taping, TESDA Director Rosanna Urdaneta also told me that TESDA Chairman Joel Villanueva already agreed to move back the TESDA fence beside the entrance of Waterfront Hotel so that the people working at the AsiaTown I.T. Park can walk with safety.
I thanked Mrs. Urdaneta on behalf of those workers and for TESDA's agreeing to this widening. If there is something that is a huge plus factor for Mayor Michael Rama, it is that he is the only Mayor to embark on this massive beautification of our sidewalks, which should be for pedestrian use only. Now if we can only convince our fellow Cebuanos living in the Ban-Tal Road to show their love for Cebu by agreeing to the widening of their respective properties, then we can proudly say that we Cebuanos did not have to wait for our National Government to widene our roads. We did it for love of Cebu and of our country!
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Due to our early deadlines, we cannot yet comment on the President's State of the Nation Address at this time. There's no doubt that our readers would be reading the SONA in the front pages of this newspaper. I just hope that Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III would have a more reconciliatory tone as against his recent sharp-tongued tirades against the Supreme Court Justices whom he seems to have targeted.
How many times have we said that the SC is the court of last resort and yes, we have seen and heard so many SC rulings that we were not happy about, like their approval of the Reproductive Health Law, wherein the High Court removed the most offensive parts of that law, like the ones where media cannot even comment on the RH Law under the pain of imprisonment. Clearly those congressmen who backed this bill wanted no one to discuss it, lest the truth came out. Thankfully the SC removed those penal provisions, which is why the RH Law has become a toothless law.
Pundits have also predicted that Pres. PNoy Aquino would exalt the great things that his Disbursement Acceleration Program for the greater benefit of the Filipino people. But then we are not getting the true picture of the DAP. Even that supposedly independent investigation done by the Senate last Thursday, which was supposed to reveal many things about the DAP was not explained by the Senators at all. In fact, Senate President Franklin Drilon failed to show the Senate's independence when he instead acted like he was one of Malacañang's lawyers defending the DAP.
At this point, I just hope that the President already gave an accounting on his own DAP funds. We saw that report that Pres. PNoy also had his own P150.6 billion in DAP funds that until this time, there has been no accounting for it. If the President gave an accounting for this, then we shall praise him for his transparency. If not, we shall insist on a full accounting of this money taken from the coffers of the people's money.
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