Implementing projects

It’s a question that the inconvenienced public has been asking for days now. Why are the repair of the Tabunok flyover and the construction of an underpass at the intersection of Natalio Bacalso Ave. and F. Llamas St. being done right after the opening of classes and during the rainy season?

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, though, are not in the habit of answering questions or reacting to criticisms on how projects are being implemented. They rarely hold press conferences and its top officials, who are the ones authorized to answer those questions, make themselves scarce especially when its projects create widespread public inconvenience.

But the public has a point. The ideal is for government to conduct repairs or implement projects during summer, when there are no classes and the movement of students does not contribute to the traffic woes and the students themselves are not inconvenienced by the said activities. (Incidentally, the repair of the Tabunok flyover and the construction of the underpass are not the only DPWH-initiated activities that are surfacing in Metro Cebu lately.)

Of course, planning and implementing projects are subject to the complex manner the government bureaucracy is being run. And it is not only the DPWH that is affected by it; so, too, are other national government agencies and local government units. Still, officials should find ways to plan better project implementation.

Meanwhile, officials of local government units in affected areas need to do their part to ease the suffering of the public while repairs on the Tabunok flyover, construction of the N. Bacalso Ave. underpass and concreting and asphalting work in other roads are being done.

Rerouting of traffic and assigning of traffic enforcers who really do their jobs is one. They can also be the ones who look over the shoulders of DPWH officials, making sure that work is not delayed and the timetable is shortened. Which brings us to the other common complaint, which is raised by people who see the obvious dilly-dallying by people implementing the projects.

The public is willing to sacrifice for the long-term benefits that would be gained from the implementation of projects. But that does not mean concerned officials should abuse that willingness to sacrifice.