Democratize development
With the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) acknowledgment that it is eyeing the building of a flyover at the junction of Gorordo Avenue and Gaisano Street in Cebu City, we wonder what is the use of Secretary Rogelio Singson’s moratorium on implementing such projects.
Any advocate for participatory governance would have thought that the moratorium, issued late last year in response to citizens’ clamor against the building of a flyover near the Asilo de la Milagrosa, is a prelude to a new era when the national government consults residents before carrying out any project.
Now the moratorium looks like window dressing designed to be lifted as soon as it seemed as if flyover opponents had let down their guard.
Marie Mignon Nillama, DPWH Central Visayas spokesperson said the Sudlon flyover project is not yet final. Such words only evince the department’s habit of providing some room for the public to squeeze in their take on a project when it is already on the brink of enforcement.
Really now, is this proper behavior for an agency in a government headed by a Chief Executive who looks to his constituents as his boss? Someone may as well hurl from the sky a grand piano on Cebuano heritage houses.
The DPWH and the national government would be wise to realize that they are up not against mere project oppositionists but a people who have entered a collective stage of enlightenment vis-a-vis developing their own backyard.
The thinking Cebuano knows that Band Aid solutions like constructing flyovers will not go far in addressing road congestion woes. Sustainable solutions need to be explored.
This is precisely why events like this year’s Independence Day road sharing were held. Solving our traffic woes is a question of building a culture of neighborliness, of give and take, as in the give and take among pedestrians, public utility vehicle drivers and private motorists in our streets.
An agency that insists on building flyovers literally shoves these monolithic structures down the people’s throats.
What will it take for some people at the top to understand that their approach to problem solving is deficient simply because it lacks the most realistic perspective and input of people on the ground?
The DPWH should stop its charade and reconcile the way it functions with the tenets of the Local Government Code in which popular consultation is enshrined.
It also needs to quit emasculatiing bodies like the Central Visayas Regional Development Council, which under Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s chairmanship is discouraging the implementation of flyover projects.
The time is ripe for national government agencies to start treating ordinary citizens as partners towards progress, not charges under its baby-sitting.
