A politician's perspective
It is quite paradoxical that the most lasting lesson I learned from my General Science high school teacher seems difficult to apply. To know what the problem is, according to my teacher decades ago, is the first step to solving it. Simple formula. My Science teacher was correct but I just cannot understand why those who are in position to solve today's scourge simply disregard it.
A modern day Gordian knot is the daily traffic jam, and everybody knows its cause. Ask the ordinary jeepney driver and he will tell you that there are just too many vehicles on the road. That simple. Dr. Pureza Onate, during one of the sessions of the Cebu City Council that I was also a part of, claimed then that ours was a 15-minute city—in the late 1980s. She meant that it would only take 15 minutes for us to travel from one end of the city to the other. Ask her now and I imagine her view has changed.
We can turn to the traffic experts and urban planners. What can they say about the causes of our traffic woes? I surmise that they will point to the increase in the number of vehicles on why we spend more than an hour to negotiate the 13-kilometer distance from Consolacion town to the Capitol.
The jeepney driver may be correct in his assessment but he could not limit the vehicles from using our roads. All he can do is endure the traffic gridlock every day. Neither has Dr. Onate any authority to decrease the volume of cars and put back Cebu as a 15minute city, travel-wise. Our traffic experts and urban planners also has no power to reduce the number of vehicles running our streets.
The traffic problem is primarily due to the big number of vehicles on the road, which surged in the last few years. They are too many that our streets cannot accommodate them anymore.
The main solution to our traffic mess is the deduction of vehicular road users, and the remedy is legislative in nature. Our senators and congressmen must make a law to prevent the massive inflow of relatively cheap vehicles from other countries, which made us the dumping ground of these units. Then, try visualizing our city streets without the thousands of these so-called "multicabs" on the road. Also imagine of no surplus cargo and dump trucks on our highways and you will see a much faster movement of vehicles.
Our legislators know the solution is their ballgame. Only they can craft the law that will legally bar these used transportation units. Police power, for public welfare, will surely meet constitutional guidelines. Yet, why have we not heard of such a bill filed in Congress? Let me guess: These politicians maybe thinking that those affected might campaign against their re-election. Well, I am optimistic that someone in Congress will soon take the cudgel of the public. I look forward to his sponsoring the bill that will reduce the number of vehicles on our roads. To his consolation, he will find the gratitude of more citizens than those who might feel oppressed by this exercise of the state's police power. Surely, he will get a tremendous boost to assure his re-election. Ingon ana ra gud. Pastilan politico!