TRAFFIC WOES. Workers install metal posts along the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes along the Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City. Provincial Board member Glenn Anthony Soco has reiterated calls for the creation of the Metro Cebu Development Council to ease traffic woes. (Photo courtesy of Cebu BRT Management Office in Cebu City)
CEBU CITY – Cebuanos reiterated calls for the creation of the Metro Cebu Development Authority (MCDA) that would consolidate inter-agency efforts to solve traffic woes and flooding problems, a provincial legislator said Monday.
Provincial Board Member Glenn Anthony Soco said the call for the creation of MCDA akin to Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) was first raised during the previous administration amid complaints that heavy traffic in Metro Cebu has been affecting the lives of many residents and the economic productivity of the province.
Soco raised anew the creation of MCDA after Cebu’s 5th District Rep. Vincente Franco Frasco filed House Resolution No. 1592 directing the House Committees on Transportation and Good Government and Public Accountability to investigate the traffic crisis affecting Metro Cebu and identify possible solutions.
“The creation of MCDA should be side by side with the effort to open more roads as well as pump priming of existing infrastructure projects that will ultimately address our traffic problem and, of course, flooding,” Soco told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.
He cited the 73.7-km Metro Cebu Expressway that will provide Metro Cebu motorists with an alternate route via a north-south backbone highway.
The PHP94 billion project was supposed to be operational in 2022.
However, it was derailed due to budgetary, environmental, and safety issues, prompting Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to stop the construction.
Soco added that the Regional Development Council (RDC) in Central Visayas already endorsed two bypass roads – the Liloan-Consolacion, Mandaue Bypass Road and the Talisay-Minglanilla-Naga Bypass Road – for funding.
Apart from infrastructure projects, local leaders in Cebu also endorsed the effort of reclaiming state-owned properties that may be converted into terminals.
“In our effort to decongest the roads by adding more capacity, we have cleared a total of 18 intersections in Metro Cebu,” Soco added.
According to him, he supports the idea of Garcia to create a Traffic Management Body that will not only tackle the traffic problem in Metro Cebu but for the entire province, stressing that road congestion is now happening as far as Carcar City in the south and Danao City in the north. (PNA)
