Duterte asked to go on with BRT project

A local transport cooperative is asking President Rodrigo Duterte to intervene in what it called a crisis situation amid the strong opposition to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Cebu City.

The Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative through its chairman and general manager Ryan Benjamin Yu asked Duterte to allow the project to proceed.

Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino and Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade recommended before the National Economic Development Authority - Investment Coordination Committee to cancel the BRT project.

The BRT project is a 23-km corridor transport system with around 33 bus stations and 176 buses operating in a dedicated bus-ways from Bulacao to Ayala and mixed traffic operations from Ayala to Talamban in Cebu City, with link to South Road Properties (SRP).

"It is our belief that the objections of the OPAV, which may or may not be valid, are solvable in the course of project implementation and should not be the basis of cancelling the project," Yu said in a letter addressed to Duterte.

Yu said that the BRT will benefit the PUJ industry, residents, workers and tourists in Cebu. According to Yu, the project can be completed within Duterte's term unlike the proposed Light Rail Transit which is expected to last 10 to 15 years to finish.

In this regard, I would like to appeal to your good heart to instruct the Department of Transportation to urgently proceed with the implementation of the Cebu BRT project at the soonest possible time," Yu said.