Cebu bloc asks for P170M study
All 10 Cebuanos in House ask Speaker for help with budget
What are the chances the P170 million will be included in next year’s budget? “Possible but difficult,” says Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north) House Resolution 485 asks for Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s help in allocating the funds so that a Metro Cebu Traffic Management Plan can be crafted Part of the process will be a review of a 2011 transportation department study on public transportation in Metro Cebu
FIFTEEN members of Congress asked for P170 million to be included in next year’s budget, to study a traffic management plan for Metro Cebu.
They asked that it be “an extensive and scientific study” that will figure out how best to move people and goods across Cebu, as well as review existing transport routes.
All 10 Cebuanos in the House of Representatives introduced the resolution,
Metro Cebu is, indeed, under a traffic crisis that gets worse every day – 15 members of the House of Representatives, in Resolution 485
which they addressed to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
According to House Resolution 485, the funds will allow a review and updates on a 2011 public transportation plan that the transportation department prepared for Metro Cebu.
The study, the legislators said, will identify “appropriate mass transport projects” and policies that will help Metro Cebu fix “a traffic crisis that gets worse every day.”
They filed the resolution last Oct. 19, on the same day the Lower House approved the 2017 national budget on third reading.
“If the P170 million is not yet included, it can still be pursued in the bicameral conference before the budget is submitted for the President’s signature,” said Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa (Cebu City, south).
Michael Dino, presidential assistant for the Visayas, recommended the feasibility study during a hearing in Mactan last Oct. 8 of the House committee on transportation chaired by Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento.
LRT, please
The hearing solicited the public’s comments on a proposal to give President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers for two years, at most, to fix the traffic situation in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao.
During the hearing in Cebu, Dino said that the best way to decongest Metro Cebu is to build a Light Rail Transit from Minglanilla to Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA), with a subway in the Mactan Channel.
In their resolution, the lawmakers said that the P170 million in next year’s budget will address “the lack of a comprehensive, scientific study covering all” of the affected local governments.
Those behind House Resolution 485 include Reps. Cesar Sarmiento, Edgar Mary Sarmiento, Gavini Pancho, Henry Ong, Mark Sambar. From Cebu, all 10 district representatives supported the call: Raul V. Del Mar and Rodrigo Abellanosa of Cebu City; and Gerard Anthony Gullas, Wilfredo Caminero, Gwen Garcia, Benhur Salimbangon, Red Durano, Jonas Cortes, and Peter Calderon of Cebu Province; and Aileen Radaza of the lone district of LapuLapu City.
The resolution calls on Speaker Alvarez to allot or realign funds for the traffic management plan.
Caminero pointed out that in order to include the P170 million, parts of the House-approved budget may have to be reduced or realigned.
Challenges
The House transportation committee visited Cebu from Oct. 6-8, 2016 to see the traffic situation first-hand and to conduct a public hearing on the emergency powers proposal.
“Metro Cebu’s stakeholders categorically stated and the Committee on Transportation had validated that Metro Cebu is, indeed, under a traffic crisis that gets worse every day,” read Resolution 485.
The plan, the proponents said, “must contain the present and future traffic situation in Metro Cebu”; the appropriate mass transport projects and the transport policies and programs that must be implemented.
It must also contain recommendations on the issuance of franchises for public utility vehicles.
Asked about the chances of including P170 million in next year’s budget, Del Mar said it would have to be approved in the bicameral conference committee after the Senate approves the budget.
He said it would be “possible but difficult.”