Traffic, flood top 3 mayors’ agenda

CEBU, Philippines — To come up an integrated solution to the traffic and flooding problems in Metro Cebu, the mayors of the cities of Cebu, Talisay, and Mandaue are meeting next month.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said there should be an integrated solution to these problems since the three local government units are interconnected.

“In principle we already agreed to hold the summit, we just need to finalize the other details like the date on when the summit will be. We will start first with the cities of Talisay and Mandaue but we will also include other local government units soon,” said Labella.

The meeting is initially scheduled on the second week of August as agreed by Labella, Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas, and Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes.

Traffic and flooding are among the top 10 priorities mentioned by Labella in his inaugural speech. For the traffic problem, Labella said his administration would seek the help of the City Council for the needed budge to install a new traffic system, traffic lights, among others.

Labella said the city government will work with the neighboring cities, municipalities, barangay officials, and the Department of Public Works and Highways for the massive dredging of the city’s waterways.

Labella had already met with the DPWH Cebu City Engineering District and the Department of Engineering and Public Works last Monday to discuss the massive dredging project.

City Engineer Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez said the city will also resume the declogging of the waterways to prevent flooding. For this year, she said the city has allocated P11.6 million budget for declogging. Of the amount, P10 million is allocated for the manpower.

But, she said the city’s executive department is still processing the hiring of 85 people to do the declogging.

“We will focus on declogging the identified frequently-flooded areas in the city,” she said.

Among the areas identified as flood-prone are Mambaling, Mabolo, and Lahug. — FPL (FREEMAN)