New leaders, old problems, and the AI shift

I was coming out of the UP Cebu campus along Gorordo Avenue in Lahug last Wednesday evening when I decided to take a different route toward home. My regular route involves turning left toward Escario Street, then taking another left onto Gov. M. Cuenco Avenue. This time, I took the Salinas Drive route before turning left onto Banilad Road at the intersection below the TESDA flyover. I thought the traffic volume would be lighter, considering it was already past 9 P.M.

I’ve lived in Banilad since 1989, which goes without saying that the Banilad-Apas-Lahug corridor has been my regular route ever since, as both my high school and college were also in Lahug. Those were the years when, past 9 P.M., the area was known more for ghost stories than for the traffic horror stories we hear today.

I remember watching a school play in 1989, staged at the STC auditorium along Gen. Maxilom Avenue. The play ended by 9 P.M., and lo and behold, Cebu jeeps at that hour were nowhere to be found. I had to walk all the way from STC to our home in Banilad, and just imagine how terrified my 13-year-old self was, practically running past the area near Cebu Country Club and the old campus of Cebu International School, said to be haunted by a “white lady” who supposedly “preyed” on passing motorists.

Ah, those were the days when going home from school meant hanging onto the back of an overloaded jeepney, standing on the rear platform and enjoying the rush of wind as the PUJ sped along Banilad Road all the way to Foodland Banilad, with nary an obstruction in sight.

Now back to the reality of today, 2025: the IT Park–Banilad corridor has become notorious for traffic congestion and bottlenecks that seem to have no solution. Still, while keeping myself up to date with developments both here and globally, I can’t help but feel that big changes may happen within the next few months, or perhaps within a year or two.

For one, a new and refreshing kind of political leadership has emerged in Cebu Province and Metro Cebu. Cebu City has an incoming mayor who is an engineer and a known champion of innovation and sustainability. Another good thing is that Mayor-elect Nestor Archival, now in his sixties, is seasoned enough to deftly navigate the complexities of local politics. At the helm of the adjacent cities of Mandaue and Talisay are younger and dynamic leaders: Mayor-elect Jonkie Ouano and Mayor Samsam Gullas, respectively. In the province, Governor-elect Pam Baricuatro and her team promise a new brand of compassionate, caring, and energetic leadership.

For another --and this may sound incredible to many-- artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to make a defining impact this year, both positively and negatively, as experts predict. On the negative side, white-collar, middle-class jobs may be reduced by as much as 50% worldwide. However, many of these may be replaced by new types of jobs requiring different skill sets. On the positive side, long-standing problems such as infrastructure gaps and traffic congestion may suddenly see both short-term and long-term solutions emerge almost overnight.

I experimented with an AI app recently after getting stuck in traffic along Salinas Drive that Wednesday night. I’m not a traffic expert, but I’d like to think I’m smart enough to ask the right questions or prompts for AI to generate sensible answers to my queries. With Google Maps images of the IT Park–Banilad corridor fed into the AI app, what I saw was a layered and strategic understanding of the traffic issue. It studied the layout of the roads and broke the problem down. It offered solutions in stages.

For example, it says: “In 6 months to 2 years, construct bus and jeepney bays outside the main carriageway. Improve sidewalk infrastructure and pedestrian crossing points. Widen merging points or add slip lanes where feasible. Create a backdoor exit from IT Park that bypasses Gov. M. Cuenco entirely (possibly extending from La Guardia Ext. through inner barangay roads). In 2–5 years, widen Cuenco Ave at key choke points. Integrate Cuenco Ave into a planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor, which will relieve private vehicle demand.”

Imagine combining good governance with the insights of real traffic experts, user-centered design, and AI. The same applies to any industry or sector. We are living in exciting times.