Waiting it out

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.

It came as no real surprise that former congressman Raul del Mar was confident about the outcome.

“If they (DPWH contractors) do it now or after the 2013 election, it doesn’t matter, as long as it gets done,’ he said last Saturday.

Del Mar has friends in the right places to get his multi-million-peso projects up in the north district.

He’s a trusted partner of  Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and its boss Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district, an avid propronent of flyovers.

Osmeña is so well favored by the Palace administration and the Liberal Party that his mayoralty bid was an easy override amid protests of the card-bearing Liberal Party -member Mayor Michael Rama, who opposes flyovers as misplaced and overpriced road accessories.

A reelection of both veterans – del Mar and Osmeña – would mean happy days again for flyover contractors executing each road bridge for   P200 million  to P400 million.

The Dept. of Public Works and Highways  treads carefully and avoids crossing the two heavyweights.

It’s tempting to to leave the ending to such traditional political equations.

Still,  there are peculiar elements  in the war over flyovers. For one, ordinary citizens are more outspoken now and getting organized,  with a clear-eyed vision of what kind of city they  want as persistent  proponents of a   Movement for a Livable Cebu.

Then there are mystery powers.

Del Mar was outmaneuvered   in 2007 by the invisible hand of Carmelite nuns when he almost got a flyover erected next to their convent in San Jose dela Montana.

The madres  didn’t bother posting banners or signing position papers.  They just prayed and sent word upstairs (to Malacañang and beyond) that they didn’t want a massive vehicle overpass disturbing the solemnity of their  space.   The DPWH stopped and transferred the project to Banilad.

In the current dispute over the flyover in barangay Kasambagan, signatories of a protest letter to President Aquino include a Carmelite nun and representatives of two diocesan seminaries, aside from several business owners.     Round 2 for this match?

Was it a coincidence  as well that the flyover he lobbied for on  Gorordo Avenue last year got stalled in limbo by persistent nuns of the nearby  Asilo Milagrosa of the Miraculous Medal Church?   If you ask them what happened, they give credit to dawn “aurora” masses and weekly “Holy Hour” before an exposed Blessed Sacrament to fuel the citizens protest campaign.

It will be interesting indeed to see  how del Mar deals with what he calls the “noisy few” in consultations he promised would follow. They may chose to remind him that as a papal awardee himself, he  can’t easily shake off doing battle with religious warriors.