The editorial of The Philippine STAR last Friday entitled “Limited progress” bluntly pointed out that we’re losing our competitive edge when it said, “The Philippines, however continues to slip in competitiveness and is losing foreign direct investments or FDIs to other Asian countries.” I fully concur with this commentary and one of the reasons why this is happening is the story we are presenting to you so you’ll have a general idea of why it is happening to us.
Last week I got hold of a letter that Dr. Roberto E. Aboitiz of the Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc. (CIPDI) wrote to Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. through DPWH-Region 7 director Josefino Rigor, complaining about the road condition of the Transcentral Highway that cuts across the middle of the province of Cebu and links Metro Cebu to the municipality of Balamban, where the nation’s biggest shipyard and one of the biggest dollar earners for this country is operating. Allow me to reprint this letter in full:
“Gentlemen, Our shipbuilding industry in this part of the country in Balamban, West Cebu is growing at a very fast pace. New ship launching happens monthly at times even twice, and these are the 55,000 up DWT bulk carriers Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc. delivers to its clients worldwide. To date, we have built more than 35 bulk carriers. On many occasions, former President Fidel V. Ramos and her Excellency Madame President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo graced our launchings.
“Of late, however, many sections of the Transcentral Highway are failing, slipping and eroding. There are many areas even where the road pavement is literally floating. Recently our Japanese investors and other foreign guests have been forced to take the much longer and more circuitous Naga-Toledo road, the old route before the Transcentral Highway came up. They have raised serious concerns on their safety if through the Transcentral Highway. The attached pictures show how bad the road already is. With more rains forecast up to mid-year, definitely we’ll have more serious problems. May we therefore sincerely request your good office to permanently repair this very vital highway. Signed, Roberto E. Aboitiz, Chairman.”
Thanks to the Transcentral Highway, the town of Balamban now plays hosts to the biggest shipyard in the country. This is not to mention that it also hosts the FBMA Marine Inc. shipyard that have built many high-speed and very high-tech catamarans like the Supercats, including two of the Lockheed Martin-designed SLICE boats, probably the most technologically advanced vessels of their kind in the world that can virtually slice through eight-foot swells! All this would not have been possible without that infrastructure project called the Transcentral Highway.
Twenty-two years ago, I would fly on Sundays on a Huey helicopter with my good friend, now Secretary Cerge Remonde and then Recom-7 chief Gen. Edgardo Abenina during our anti-communism days to educate the poor folk of Gaas, Balamban about the evils of communism. Yes, Balamban then was a hotbed of Cebu’s communist insurgency, but because the province of Cebu, then under Gov. Emilio “Lito” Osmeña, embarked on this road project, Cebuanos witnessed a remarkable turnaround in Balamban. Call it an economic miracle if you wish, but for us Cebuanos, we looked at it as giving Balamban a chance to ride on Cebu’s vaunted Cebooom!
Sadly, today the Transcentral Highway is fast deteriorating for the simple reason that the DPWH crows about its infrastructure projects, but does nothing to maintain our roads… until accidents happen, then those reactionary government bureaucrats start thinking about solving the problem. So the question is, are DPWH officials waiting for an accident to happen before they act on the letter of Dr. Aboitiz? I hope not.
The Transcentral Highway is also one of Cebu’s most scenic routes and therefore a tourist attraction on its own, that is why we ride our bikes often for a short Sunday ride. As a former chairman of the Infrastructure and Utilities Committee (IUC) of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) we monitored the construction of this mountain highway and back then I already knew that the DPWH was cutting costs, for instance, by refusing to construct gabion nets to wrap around the mountainside to prevent loose rocks from falling or turning into a landslide. The reason: no additional money.
Today many sections of the Transcentral Highway are literally hanging and motorists do not really see that under the concrete pavement is empty space. So when will the DPWH consider fixing this road before tragedy strikes? This is the tragedy with our present centralized form of government: a DPWH regional director is nothing but a glorified postman!
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.
