CEBU CITY—Nuns have resorted to prayer power in fighting off a government plan to put up a flyover in front of their church and convent, and they appear to be winning.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it would redesign the project to have minimal impact on the compound of Asilo de la Milagrosa on Gorordo Avenue.
The announcement came days after the the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul held a dawn procession on Oct. 1 to seek enlightenment on how to respond to the infrastructure project at the junction of Archbishop Reyes Avenue and Gorordo.
Augustinito Hermoso, legal officer of the DPWH in Central Visayas, said adjustments on the design would be made to ensure that only the sidewalk in front of the Asilo compound would be affected.
Rep. Rachel Marguerite del Mar of the city’s north district, earlier said she had told DPWH officials to make sure that WTG Construction, which won the project bidding, would not touch the Asilo, which provides shelter to 67 orphans.
But the nuns running the Asilo opposed the project, saying that the construction of the flyover would sully the ambience and solemnity of the orphanage.
They held the first of nine dawn processions or auroras that they planned over the next eight Saturdays. The aurora is a centuries-old Catholic tradition offered in thanksgiving or petition to God through the intercession of a saint.
The nuns have the support of the 3,000-strong Movement for Liveable Cebu (MLC), a multisectoral group against the construction of more flyovers in Cebu. The group has instead called for better enforcement of traffic laws, widening of roads, and the opening of the streets to nonpolluting means of mass transportation, bikers, skateboarders and pedestrians.
Rudy Alix, an MLC member, urged residents to join in the next auroras. Even non-Catholics “can form prayer forces separately, and pray for a livable city,” he said.
The Seventh Day Adventist Church, whose Visayas headquarters on Gorordo Avenue will also be affected by the building of the flyover, called for a moratorium on the project.
Del Mar defended the flyover project in a letter to President Aquino last month. She said the structure “allows unimpeded crossing at an intersection as it eliminates dependence on traffic lights for vehicles using it and at the same time allows crossing for vehicles on the ground level.”
She said the project, along with another on M.J. Cuenco and General Maxilom avenues, was already bid out. They would unclog “two choke points” in the city, she added.