I smiled upon reading the article of fellow The FREEMAN columnist Bobit Avila last Thursday. Actually, he is my senior for he started writing while I was still practicing law. In careful and guarded statements, Mr. Avila mentioned the administrations of past Cebu City mayors didn’t do anything to address Cebu City’s traffic situation. His exact words were “I exhort Young to listen to the solution that Duterte is offering rather than attack it because it will only reveal the reality that they didn’t do anything during their term.” This was in relation to the observation expressed by Councilor Joy Augustus Young on the announcement made by President Rodrigo Duterte, during his Sinulog visit, that to solve Cebu City’s traffic woes, we need skyways.
I used “smiled” because to a certain extent Mr. Avila was “shooting straight” and he was mostly correct in his observation.
Former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña was the most dominant political figure since 1988. For three decades, he and his surrogates had almost absolute control of City Hall, yet he never undertook projects to smoothen traffic. The traffic signal system we have was implemented in his term but was a project vigorously pursued by then Governor Eduardo Gullas and then Mayor Ronald Duterte. Yes, Mr. Avila was mostly right in saying Osmeña and his surrogates did nothing.
I’m certain though that Mr. Avila is aware of the Revised Road Ordinance of 1992. While on hindsight it looked inadequate to solve what is now a humongous problem, it was our way of addressing a serious issue. I was one of those who put meat to the local law. The ordinance carried three concepts: (a) straighten crooked roads; (b) widen narrow streets and (c) open new roads. In the declaration of Mr. Avila, Osmeña did none of these.
Mr. Avila also took the side of Presidential Assistant Michael Dino. Earlier, Duterte offered to help our city look for funds for a skyway transport system. In his speech, Duterte pointed to the Metro Manila traffic as a preferred model for Cebu City to adopt and emulate. Young reportedly remarked that traffic jams in the nation’s capital are far more serious than in Cebu City and in his view it was inadvisable to copy the Metro Manila failed model. Why indeed should we adopt a system that hasn’t solved daily traffic woes?
Dino felt that Young insulted Duterte. We cannot blame Dino for his reaction because, in his perception, shielding Duterte against all incongruent comments is his job. Perhaps he was carried by his emotions that he went ad hominem. That Young obtained just a little over 100,000 votes compared to the president’s 16 million in the last elections plus is not just a severely flawed argument, it is an arrogant display of miseducation.
This is where I offer my take. Young, to me, didn’t insult Duterte. No Filipino would ever do that. Certainly not veteran politicians in Young’s mold and character. Young only gave a reaction to Duterte’s plan. His language might not be as graphic as the president’s four-letter words but I didn’t discern any malice in Young’s lingo. His opining that the skyway in Metro Manila hasn’t solved its traffic problem is founded upon fact. Billions poured into the infrastructure in Metro Manila haven’t been effective. If that is Young’s view, he is entitled to it.
Just the same, because the fury of the wielders of power seems misplaced, I’m taking the exchange of verbal firepower in advisement. Whatever it means.