Scrapping the BRT

Recently, some members of the Cebu City Council called for the scrapping of the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. We’ll just have to contend with this forever. Worldwide, ever since the BRT started, there were always contrary opinions to it. I often asked why, and already concluded it will always be so --there would be people who would like it and others who won’t. Every time dissenting opinions arise I often also write lengthy explanations addressing the specific points to their disagreement. Until I realized we can never satisfy all and we just have to accept there will always be those who will and won’t agree with it. As a civil engineer, I may know more about transportation’s technical intricacies, but for the longest time, even I myself could not see the BRT’s advantages. Until I did, and chided myself how I could have missed it!

Unfortunately for the BRT, it needs an “Aha!” moment --that certain moment in time when you suddenly see its novelty, and how it works, and towards better results. You can see all the BRTs in the entire world and may never see why it’s good. People who own and ride cars are usually the ones who won’t, but even a few of those who use public transportation all their lives may not, too, their mindset fixed by the status quo. Seeing and riding BRTs in other countries won’t ensure understanding, too, most who do are the usually the regular users who go to work/school and use it every day.

It is no longer surprising that two city councilors called for the scrapping of the BRT. We’ve seen worse. Five years ago, two Philippine government secretaries officially demanded it be scrapped. No less than the secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) himself wrote NEDA to cancel the project, together with another secretary --the presidential assistant for the Visayas. Imagine this --the DOTr is the proponent, implementer, and owner of the BRT but its own secretary called for its cancellation. He and the presidential assistant officially wrote NEDA to scrap it!

Of course, NEDA, chaired by the president, said “No!” Instead, NEDA ordered DOTr to proceed and complete it fast. Both antagonists never understood it. The BRT is DOTr’s project, but proposed and implemented by those who understand it. There will always be those who won’t. The proof is you have a DOTr secretary who called for its cancellation, only to be rebuffed by NEDA. Both secretaries before him and after him clearly understand the BRT, which is why they’re briskly implementing it.

The BRT will never run out of dissenters, even years and decades from now. It’s fortunate that we have NEDA which ultimately looks at what’s good or bad for the country, and who will protect good projects from detractors --even if the detractor is the head of the proponent/implementing agency itself! But it will surely help if we study how projects are evaluated and realize that it’s more foolish to stop a project with a 30%+ Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR) when hundreds of other LGUs are painstakingly vying/competing for the difficult NEDA approval of theirs.

I was in elementary school when I attended my first Sinulog Festival with my family. It was a bit confusing to me then why the streets were full of banderitas and why road closures had to be implemented. One the day of the actual festival, I understood how important it was for the Cebuanos and the other devotees of Señor Santo Niño to pay homage in the form of dance.

The word “vibe” is defined as a distinctive feeling or quality capable of being sensed. Obviously, the Sinulog Festival gave off a certain kind of vibe that is incomparable to the rest of the events combined. I can still recall the annual parade held at the main thoroughfares of the city. We had “walkathons” just to reach downtown, the squeezing in small spaces just to see the parade, and the random dancing to any speaker that played the Sinulog beat. The smell was a mix of costume, sweat, heat, food, plastic, and a lot more. It was normal to see acquaintances and friends on the street. Cebu City became a whole new community, one that danced to a beat.

In the recent Sinulog sa Kabataan both for the city and province, the vibe came flashing before me again. I was flashbacks of those days when I would piggy-back on my dad so I could see the parade or how I would meet up with my classmates in one of the landmarks along the route. Transportation was not so much of an issue because we basically walked to everything, from the Fuente Osmeña Circle to the Cebu City Sports Center and to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño. We made occasional stops when a float would pass by us, so we can make sure to wave at the celebrity who was on it.

Now that the Sinulog Festival's main event is moved