I drove to Cebu City Hall early yesterday morning to join a meeting with the media with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama only to be told that it was cancelled due to the Press Freedom Week celebration. Indeed City Hall should have been made aware that this week is Press Freedom Week in Cebu and therefore media people are busy attending various activities.
Anyway, I had some major questions to ask Mayor Rama and since that meeting was cancelled, I will ask those questions in this corner. The first is why is this building along Mango Ave., where a Coffee Bean and Scent outlet does business, operating without parking space? Some City Hall insiders told me that this building, which was originally a home, had a permit for reconstruction but clearly there is change of use in this case. So why was this coffee house given a business permit to operate? So it shouldn't be operating at all, right?
The same thing is happening to another coffee house called Tinderbox along the busy Banilad-Talamban (Ban-Tal) road, which is in the process of reconstruction where the building, which also used to be a house, has now become a big two-storey edifice? During the time of then Mayor Tomas Osmeña, he even denied giving a business permit to Cuidad for reasons that it would worsen the traffic in the area. So with the Tinderbox getting bigger than it was before…where would their guests park?
I heard that the Cebu City Government is using that old system that they had during the opening of the Metro Gaisano along Colon St., where it was constructed without allotting space for parking. This forced Gaisano to rent a space nearby as its parking space. But then that was 25 years ago when Cebu City's traffic at that time was just on the downtown area. Today there is traffic everywhere especially in the Ban-Tal road. So what gives?
That someone in Cebu City Hall told me that the Tinderbox has rented a space beside it that would serve as its parking space. So now we ask, what if that empty lot is sold and the new owners will construct a building? Where will the Tinderbox get its parking? Hmmm by that time, people would already forget that their facility lacked a parking space…but the die has been cast!
As far as the Coffee Bean and Scent is concerned, they have approached my cousins to ask them to share One Mango's parking space. But my cousins refused because their parking space is just right for their own establishment. So what will Mayor Michael Rama do? Can we consider these establishments "naka-lusot?" Does Mayor Mike have the political will to shut down these erring establishments?
There was a time when the Office of the Building Official was very strict in the implementation of parking especially on new buildings. At this time when traffic in Cebu is already reaching the critical level, I believe it is time for consumer groups to file charges of neglect of duty and violation of the National Building Code against officials of the OBO! Of course, Mayor Rama can redeem himself by personal shutting down such premises that do not meet our parking standards.
Also, I wanted to ask Mayor Rama what his stand is on the issue of the proposed increase on the terminal fees by the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority? Like I said, our political leaders in Cebu have apparently knelt to the altar of Pres. Benigno Aquino III centralized system of governance. Their silence against this measure, especially that the Department of Transportation & Communications leased the Mactan Airport for 25 years and got P14.4 billion for that facility. So we Cebuanos did not expect any increase of terminal fees because supposedly Mactan International Airport was paid handsomely for that lease?
Yes, even the officials of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc., the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. and the Cebu Business Club haven't issued any statements on this issue. Why are these people totally silent on this? Never mind Governor Hilario "Jun Jun" Davide III because he is so "sip-sip" to the Yellow Ribbon brigade, he will never lift a finger to displease Imperial Manila.
What has happened to us in Cebu? Don't we have any more leaders who aren't afraid to fight Imperial Manila? Have they forgotten that it is our taxes that we pay to the national government that is being used to fund the Light Rail Transit and the Metro Rail Transit and all Cebuanos get are promises of that up and coming Bus Rapid Transit that we all know is not going to solve our mass transport needs, but even worsen our traffic in Metro Cebu?
We've been under Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III for 4 years now and Cebu infrastructure development has literally stopped under this President and there's no peep from any of our political leaders. Abangan!