Nuns in Asilo chapel start dawn rosary; sisters alarmed by Gorordo flyover plan

Nuns  in the Asilo dela Milgarosa are turning to prayer power to try to head off the construction of a flyover next to their chapel in Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City, which they worry will destroy the “solemnity” of the place.

Starting Oct. l, they will hold dawn rosaries in the chapel for nine consecutive Saturdays  to pray for “discernment” on what to do.

The special “aurora” prayers at 4 a.m. are open to the public and will be participated by the nuns, a  pastoral team, and parishioners.

The activity, which was announced at Mass, will begin this Saturday, according to an office secretary in the reception desk of the orphanage run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

Banners of the “Stop Cebu Flyovers Movement” hang outside the walls of the compound which includes a more than 50-year-old chapel, a garden and a charity house for orphans and senior citizens.

The massive flyover will also affect road access to the nearby Perpetual Succour Hospital run by the Sisters of St. Paul Chartres.

A flyover “would be more noisy and would ruin the solemnity and ambience of this place,” said Sister Leticia Deilio, the  administrator, during a public forum of anti-flyover advocates held at the Asilo gym last Sept. 17.

Half of the garden which has a grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the frontage  of the church grounds would be  affected, she explained.

About three meters of the area from the road along Gorordo Avenue would be taken by developers during construction of the flyover, said the nun.

Joel Lee, a coordinator of the Stop Cebu Flyovers Movement,  said the nuns wanted to “discern” as a community how to deal with plans of the Dept. of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to build a P300 million concrete overpass on Gorordo Avenue and MJ Cuenco Avenue.

“The nuns are not confrontational and demanding,” Lee said and would also pray for  “more hearts and minds” for a more sustainable Cebu.

“ There will be focus on discernment for the common good,” he said.

Rep. Rachel Marguerite “Cutie” del Mar of Cebu City’s north district is pushing for the project, which was started by her father Raul, as the previous congressman.

With P600 million in funds already available in the DPWH budget for two flyovers, del Mar said work would start this year to ease traffic congestion.

The Cebu City Council and various barangay councils gave their support for del Mar’s projects.

The proposed flyovers, however, have drawn mounting criticism from Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom), environment groups, private urban planners,  and recently, the College of Architecture of the University of San Carlos and Graduate School for Urban Design.

Citom traffic managers called the two additional flyovers an “extremely inefficient” solution to congestion and warned of new hazards posed to pedestrians and vehicle flow in the area.

A position paper by USC’s faculty and students of architecture and urban planning, said “flyovers have no place inside the urban core” of Cebu City and warned of further “urban decay”  if public infrastructure continues to be built without “comprehensive physical planning” for the long term.

The DPWH, meanwhile, said the flyover projects are feasible based on a study they made of a three-day 24 hour vehicle count.

Lee and other pro-ecology members of Permaculture Cebu are advocating a a “sustainable and liveable” city with enough space for pedestrians and bike lanes and less pollution from vehicles.

Some alternative raised by the Stop Cebu Flyovers Movement is to open more alternative routes in the streets, create a mass transportation system and have a transport master plan for Cebu to guide future projects.

Lee expressed his concern  over the announcement of Rep. Tomas Osmeña  that he would have a new flyover built in the Cebu South Road Properties.

“This should not be about political alliances. There’s more to this than just flyovers. They should also consider the impact,” Lee said. /Candeze R. Mongaya, Reporter