TRAFFIC WOES. President Rodrigo Duterte chats with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino during the Sinulog in Cebu City on Sunday (Jan. 19, 2020). Dino called on local officials to support the President's plan to put up a monorail and skyways to solve the traffic problem in Metro Cebu. (Photo courtesy of Danjick Lim, OPAV)
CEBU CITY -- The Presidential Assistant for the Visayas on Tuesday lectured critics of President Rodrigo Duterte's pronouncement on solving traffic and transportation woes in Metro Cebu.
Sec. Michael Lloyd Dino called for a press conference to defend the President against the criticism of a city councilor here, who questioned Duterte's Sinulog speech saying Metro Cebu needs a monorail and skyways to solve the traffic problem.
He said Cebu City Councilor Joy Augustus Young could not just criticize Duterte’s promise to look for funds for Metro Cebu monorail and skyways as he “has done nothing to solve the traffic problem in Cebu City.”
Dino said Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade took pains in sending transportation experts to Cebu to study the best ways to solve the traffic woes and suggest an efficient mass transport system.
"Manila has LRT (Light Rail Transit) since the 1980s. But here in Cebu, even a kilometer-long train, we don’t have it. It’s about time that Cebu adopts a monorail with a capacity of an LRT,” he said.
Tugade has offered Cebu a “basket of solutions” in solving our transport needs and their critical effect on traffic, he said.
“Here comes a President who has love for Cebu and thinks what is best for us. Let’s just support and help the President’s plan for Cebu," he said.
Duterte, in his speech during the Sinulog last Sunday, vowed to provide funds for the monorail and above-ground infrastructure projects, saying that Cebu as an old city could no longer widen its roads and replicate interventions adopted in Manila such as rail system and skyways.
However, Young said he does not see the wisdom of Duterte in adopting skyways and trains in Manila as a solution to the traffic crisis in Cebu, contending that skyways and trains have not solved the crisis in Manila.
But Dino was quick in lecturing Young about the Duterte administration’s plan for Metro Cebu to put up an Integrated Intermodal Transport System (IITS) which includes the monorail, cable cars, bike ways, skyways, intelligent traffic signaling system, and intermodal terminal the inter-convergence of all mass transport system like the point-to-point bus system and the bus rapid transit.
He also noted the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program of the DOTr that is now being implemented by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
The proposed monorail project will have a 12,000 to 15,000 passenger capacity per hour per direction and will traverse from Cebu City to Mandaue City and on to Lapu-Lapu City. (PNA)
