By John Rey Saavedra/PNA
CEBU CITY — Component cities and towns in Metro Cebu must not be left out in the traffic management body proposed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency that will implement the urban transport master plan, the presidential assistant for the Visayas said on Thursday.
“If we want to harmonize the urban transport plan, we should include all the municipalities in Metro Cebu,” Michael Lloyd Dino, the presidential assistant for the Visayas, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.
Dino’s reaction came after JICA experts, headed by Dr. Masujima Tetsuji, presented to him the two options — the Metro Cebu Traffic Management Coordinating Body (MCTMCB) or Special Committee on Metro Cebu Urban Transport Development — as transport institution that will manage the metro’s traffic.
Either of these bodies, according to the draft master plan Tetsuji presented, will be the “new institutional setup to be a coordinating body to harmonize and implement measures, program, and projects in the MCUT master plan.”
Accordingly, the functions of the body will be to “coordinate inter-LGUs (local government units) traffic management,” and will serve as a platform for sharing local traffic data such as traffic counts at critical intersections, PUVs (public utility vehicles), and routes.
The body, the draft document said, will also serve as a venue to harmonize traffic policies and strategies.
Tetsuji presented to Dino the three member-cities of the body that include Cebu City, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.
In the plan, Cebu province will sit in the body as representative of its component cities and municipalities in Metro Cebu” but will only “function as observer.”
The body will not be a well-represented one if one or many LGUs in Metro Cebu will be left out, Dino pointed out.
“The provincial government should not be just given a token observer status. It’s not to include them than have them there but without substantial function,” he said.
Metro Cebu is composed of 13 cities and municipalities and stretches from Carcar City to Danao City.
The JICA team, Tetsuji said, will look to incorporate the points raised by the presidential assistant in the final master plan.
Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas spokesperson Titus Borromeo told the PNA that another proposal being pushed by Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary for Planning and Project Development Ruben Reinoso is the creation of a executive order creating a transport institution for Metro Cebu.
A joint project field office between DOTr and the Deparment of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is also suggested in order to harmonize transport and traffic-related areas of development in the metro, he said.
Evelyn Nacario-Castro, director of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB), said she also presented to the presidential assistant another proposed body called the Metro Cebu Development Authority (MCDA), that is like the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
The draft bill for this proposed body was already submitted to Congress for consideration.
