Emptying the ‘basket’?

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is the mass transport system in Cebu that is closest to being implemented. All the other systems, from the light railway transit to the monorail transit, are still being proposed, meaning that their implementation will still take a longer time. The worst thing that could happen is for the BRT project implementation to get postponed, or worse, abandoned.

The BRT project is not about Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino or Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña. It is not about politics or personal hurt. While the most aggressive proponent of the BRT project is Osmeña, it is in reality the Cebuano public that would benefit more from its realization. Cebu is one of the country’s major urban centers but it is in dire need of a mass transport system.

Thus, if the BRT project is abandoned, or the funds allocated for it are spent instead for the BRT project in Metro Manila like what a lawmaker is proposing, the main loser would not be Osmeña but the Cebuanos. Meaning that if Dino’s objection to the BRT project is targeted at Osmeña, he would be hitting the Cebuanos instead. (Osmeña years ago blocked a project, a joint venture with the Capitol, proposed by Dino’s firm in Cebu City.)

Dino was given the benefit of the doubt when he questioned the viability of the BRT project and partnered with Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade in seeking to stop its implementation. The thinking was that they would come up with a better way of implementing the project and not seek to abandon it.

The report that Rep. Bayani Fernando of Marikina City has proposed the transfer of the funds for the BRT project in Cebu City to the BRT project in Metro Manila comes as a surprise. If the transfer happens, that would be tragic, considering the difficulty in sourcing funds for major projects in Cebu.

Tugade correctly pointed out that the traffic and transportation issues in the Philippines, and that obviously includes Metro Cebu, need a basket of solutions, meaning not only the BRT. But what if even the only content so far of the “basket of solutions” for the traffic woes in Metro Cebu gets emptied?