What will be forgotten
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has sent personnel of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) back to the underpass construction site in Mambaling to direct the traffic again, after they were pulled out because he had wanted Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Victor Caindec and his agency to handle the traffic there themselves. Meaning, the mayor blinked.
In the aftermath, the mayor came up with this explanation for what he did: “LTO abandoned their own challenge that they will show us how to do it. They insist that they’re the only agency authorized to implement the law so I let them do it. When they claimed that they are the authority, if I don’t do it, I may be accused if hanging on to power and abusing my authority.”
It’s actually an explanation that, for Cebuano kids, usually get “Estoryahe!” as a response. Even then, the hope is that this episode in the construction of the underpass is finally over and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) can finish the job, which is actually the main solution to the traffic problem in the area.
DPWH 7 itself came up with a reassuring statement by way of presenting its timeline for the project: It will be fully completed on March 28, 2019. That’s an interesting information because the mid-term local and national elections will be held in May 2019. Could this be the reason the project was implemented even before alternative routes could already be pinpointed and readied?
There is a logic there for politicians with the next elections in mind. Even if, say, roads gets dilapidated within the three-year terms of incumbents, if road repairs are completed immediately before the elections, all the hassles that people went through and all the complaints are forgotten. The politician gets the “pogi” points and the votes.
Also forgotten would be the traffic situation in the area before work on the underpass project began: traffic wasn’t that much of the problem then. Meaning that it would still not be much of a problem after the project is completed. The only difference is that the traffic mess created by the implementation of the project would already vanish. And voters will forget the incompetence of those behind it.