Rama mulls new transport system instead of BRT

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama said he may consider pushing for an alternative mass transport system if the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project won’t be approved by the national government.

“There is such a thing as a not -so-certain national position on the BRT,” he said in yesterday’s press conference.

Rama said he is interested in a renewable energy powered mass transport system called the Automated Guideway Transit (AGT).

The mayor said he was briefed about the system being developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) at the UP Diliman campus during his Manila trip over the weekend.

“If this (AGT) is better, faster ,  then why talk about the BRT?” Rama said.

He said if he were to have his way, he wants Cebu City to have its own mass transport system before the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

The mayor will leave for Manila anew to meet Transportation Secretary Jose Emilio Abaya in connection with the BRT project.

President Benigno Aquino III said in his  Cebu visit in November last year that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) which he chairs had set aside the Cebu BRT  proposal pending further study.

President Aquino said the government cannot gamble on a multi-million peso project unless it is certain that it will work.

Rama said he insisted on the city’s preference for a BRT system instead of a Light Railway Transit (LRT) system mentioned by the president.

Rama said he also talked with Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez on reconsidering a policy to phase out second hand tour buses. “He is receptive but I will be making a follow through,” he said.

The mayor said he also asked Jimenez if Cebu City can use the unspent P2 million from the P15 million assistance given by  the Department of Tourism to the city government for the renovation of Plaza Sugbu a few years back.

Rama said he wanted to use the amount to pay for the rehabilitation of Fort San Pedro and the beautification of Freedom Park, the Carbon Market and the Warwick barracks.

But he said Jimenez advised him to seek new funding instead and provide him a list of other projects the DOT can fund.

Rama also asked Jimenez to increase the DOT’s P1 million financial assistance  for the annual Sinulog festival. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac