News Briefs

‘CIUDAD WON’T WORSEN TRAFFIC’

THE Ciudad project of the Cebu provincial government will not necessarily worsen traffic in Cebu City’s northern corridor, an engineer said.

Additional access roads opened with the Ciudad project will ease traffic in the Banilad-Talamban road, said engineer Pedro Compendio,  traffic consultant of 5th Avenue, the developer of the Ciudad project.

At least 3,000 more vehicles will pass the street where 21,102 south-bound and 16,711 north-bound vehicles pass every day, the engineer said.

According to the presentation, the opening of the Camp Lapu-Lapu Road inside Central Command’s vicinity would help ease up the traffic.

Engineers will open three access roads to and from Asiatown IT Park, the study showed. A fourth access road will pass through the Central Command compound, Compendio said.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has sent a request letter to the Armed Forces of the Philippines general headquarters to open the compound to private vehicles.

The province will also offer some lots along the Ban-Tal area, while private land owners from the Gaisano Country Mall area down to sitio Baca access road in Apas signified their “willingness to part with their property” to provide easement. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

HOT LOGS SEIZED

AT least P2.5-million worth of logs were apprehended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7) last Friday.

Agents of  Task Force Kalasangan for Visayas and Mindanao raided the warehouse of a certain Elder Cabahug from barangay Looc in Mandaue City after receiving a tip that he  illegally transported logs without documents from Surigao, said Loreto Rivac, Community Environment and Natural Resources officer.

Cabahug will be charged for violation of Presidential Degree 702 or the Forestry Code of the Philippines.

“We monitored the logs from Surigao until it reached Cebu,” Rivac told Cebu Daily News.

A total of 75 pieces of mancono and dipterocarp  lumber and narra flitches with a volume of 5,402 board feet were seized, the DENR said in a statement.

Forester Samuel Carpio and lawyer  Leandro Abiog applied for a search warrant that was issued by Mandaue Regional Trial Court  Judge Marilyn Lagura-Yap.

Rivac said mancono and dipterocarp are natural growing trees, which can’t be cut due to a log ban  issued by President Benigno Aquino III through Executive Order No. 23.

Cabahug will appear in court on Thursday. /Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya

DISASTER ALERT

CEBU City has been placed on alert since Friday in anticipation of flooding and other disasters that may result from ongoing rains and predictions of coming typhoons.

Alvin Santillana, executive director of the Cebu City Risk Reduction Management Council, said at least eight  personnel from the light disaster squadron of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary have been deployed at their barangay Mambaling office to help in incident monitoring.

“They have taken over the disaster office since Friday after Mayor Michael Rama declared that the city be placed on alert,” Santillana said.

Yesterday, two landslides were reported in the mountain barangays of Toong in the south district and Binaliw in the north district.

Santillana said the two landslides partially closed barangay roads.

Romulo Guarine of the CCRRM office said the Toong landslide covered about 50 meters of road in sitio Kaingking that connects to barangay Pamutan.

The landslide also uprooted at least five trees.

A GMA 7 report said the barangay experienced power interruption on Friday after electrical lines were toppled  by moving soil.

Heavy equipment from the Department of Engineering and Public Works were sent to Toong early yesterday to help in clearing operations.

In barangay Binaliw, barangay officials manually cleared soil while waiting for heavy equipment from Toong. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac