Health and social services, infrastructure projects, jobs creation and free education for the poor were among the priorities given by five congressional aspirants who attended last week’s Mega Cebu Candidates Forum.
President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday gave the green light for the construction of a flyover at the perennially traffic-choked corner of Edsa and Taft Avenue in Metro Manila.
Of the four flyovers in Cebu City, the structure in barangay Mambaling needs the most corrections to ensure road safety based on a March 1 audit report of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom).
MOTORISTS who use the Maguikay flyover in going to the north or going to the city from the north are advised to take alternate routes starting Jan. 24 until Feb. 3 because the flyover would be closed for repairs.
When a foreigner checked out of his hotel in Barangay Subangdaku in Mandaue City late last year, he left a note to the hotel manager: The flyover was the dirtiest structure he had ever seen in all his travels.
Ibumped into former congressman Raul del Mar and his comely wife Melanie at the entrance of the Ayala Mall last Saturday afternoon just as they were about to enter the shopping center. I was on my way to the Asilo de la Milagrosa to attend anticipated Sunday Mass after picking up a few grocery items. When I saw them coming down from the concrete stairs of the north side of the Ayala Business Park, I walked up to the del Mars to say, “Hi.”
THERE are cheaper and better ways to solve traffic congestion than building flyovers.
Cebu City Mayor Micahel Rama said he is not worried about revived efforts to push for more flyovers in the city.
Even before the Palace invitation for a meeting on flyover projects with President Benigno Aquino III last year, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and flyover critics knew at the back of their minds that power politics was at play on a national level.
Raul del Mar, who’s gunning for reelection in Congress, is a patient man when it comes to his stalled flyover projects in Cebu City.
News of toxic waste dumping by Glenn Defense Marine Asia, the Malaysia-based United States Navy contractor in Philippine waters was headline news the past days. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has scheduled a meeting today with the parties concerned. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is calling for a Senate investigation of the incident. A very effective environmental crusader, the EcoWaste Coalition, is pushing for a transparent investigation and the filing of a legal action, as warranted.
The construction of two flyover projects in Cebu City proposed by Cebu north district Rep. Rachel “Cutie” del Mar will push through. The pronouncement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas must have hit multi-sectoral groups opposed to the plan like a thunderbolt because after it got stuck in the Regional Development Council, everybody thought the project will be placed in the backburner. Now it can be told; the lull didn’t mean that Rep. Del Mar stopped lobbying for the implementation of the two flyovers.
Both the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and a civil society group scored former congressman Raul del Mar’s insistence to push through with two flyover projects in a Cebu City Development Council meeting last Monday.
