Let's help DPWH restore our national road

I have been writing about many issues with the Department of Public Works & Highways (DPWH) and for the second time, I got a letter from DPWH Regional Director Ador Canlas, CESO IV. This time Director Canlas is responding to the column that we wrote last Oct.5th entitled "Can Anyone Shutdown a National Road?" Let me reprint Director Canlas reply on this.

"As correctly stated in your column, it was indeed the Supreme Court who ordered the conveyance of the properties in question to the private claimants. This was expressly provided for under the dispositive portion of the SC's ruling in the consolidated cases of Ouano et al. vs RP, MCIAA and RoD Cebu City (G.R. No.168770) and MCIAA vs. Inocian et al. (G.R. No.168812), promulgated on February 9,2011.

Consequently, within the same year when the case was decided, a Deed of Conveyance was executed in favor of the private claimants and the subject properties included therein the road portions. Payments were made accordingly and the private parties sought for the issuance of a writ of possession. Unfortunately, the DPWH was not a party to that case.

However, be it informed that immediately after the knowledge of the forceful taking, the DPWH already indorsed the matter to the Office of the Solicitor General for representation and immediate action. Currently, this Department is already awaiting for formal advice of the Office of the Solicitor General."

Thanks for this response to that column Director Canlas… it makes me feel comfortable that at least the DPWH here was apparently left out in the cold about this road closure and therefore cannot be blamed for neglect. I'm more than positive that not a single Justice of the Supreme Court knew that this case included a national road. As I pointed out… when I was running things as CITOM chairman, I always knew that this was part and parcel of the national road. It is in fact the original Banilad-Talamban Road and was never reduced into a private road.

At this point, allow me to cross my fingers that the DPWH can stop this nonsense and bring back the national road to its original state. This is one time that DPWH officials can show their mettle and we can very well help them convince the Office of the Solicitor General or even the SC that they innocently allowed a national road to be shut down. Never in the history of Cebu has this ever happened and I'm with you guys in fighting this case.

Meanwhile still on DPWH matters. Somehow this news report escaped my eye when I read that the DPWH already had P50 million ready for the dredging of the 1.6-kilometer Parian estero, which starts beside our building along Legazpi Street all the way into the sea along Pier Two in Barangay Tinago. I really don't know when they would implement this project, but this is the best thing that ever happened to this estero, which has already been so silted.

In order to help the DPWH, I can show them a World War II aerial photo of the bombing of downtown Cebu City by the US Air Corps, which clearly shows the Parian estero from its source along Legazpi Street all the way to Pier Two. Of course back then, the majority of the buildings in downtown Cebu, including my grandfather's Teatro Oriente and the Avila Imprenta were totally burned down.

Of course how things have changed with the Parian estero. But first things first… the siltation was caused by so many of the floodwaters from Manalili Street and Colon Street to wash out from the streets into the estero and worsened the siltation. So a major solution is to really desilt from the root of the estero all the way into the sea. This is one project that we will be watching carefully and now is the best time to do it because the rainy season is already over and work on the estero can proceed smoothly.

*** I read in today's FREEMAN a report that the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) pointed out that no individual or group is exempted from traffic rules, from the police to the pesky bulletproof armored vehicles that transport the money of our banks. I have encountered those irresponsible armored truck drivers literally violating road rules, driving or parking for instance against traffic supposedly as a safety precaution.

But then who in his right mind would want to stop an armored car with armed guards who are waiting to spring out just in case you're going to rob them? It is for this reason that I have called the CCTO radio room so many times to report these irresponsible armored van drivers who think they are above the law. Perhaps the Bankers Club does not know that armored car drivers they hired are nothing but irresponsible jeepney drivers who totally disregard our traffic laws!