Cebu is 8th safest city, yet we lack streetlights?

I have been writing columns for 30 years now and not once have I ever endorsed anyone to become an Associate Justice, but when I read a report that revealed that Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez was being considered as one of the candidates to replace Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. who is expected to retire by Aug.  8, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) was considering Midas Marquez together with the names of 11 candidates. If there is anyone that the SC needs, it is a person like Midas Marquez who has years of experience as court administrator, a position that the SC needs to help prove the Judiciary.

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The 2018 school year finally began yesterday and if we have more than the usual traffic congestion yesterday, it was expected to happen especially in areas near schools. Of course as we expected, the opening of school was more or less a repeat of previous school openings where the usual lack of classrooms, lack of teachers and lack of support from parents-teacher associations marred the opening of school. Why is it that despite the change in the political leadership, and despite having a very competent Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones, nothing much has changed within the Education Department? This is for your thoughts!

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Did you know that a month ago, a report from the collaborative online database Numbeo mentioned that at least five Philippine cities have been named as among the 10 Safest Cities in Southeast Asia? These cities are Valenzuela City, Davao City, Makati City, Baguio City and Cebu City. Singapore was named the Safest City with 16.23 percent crime and safety rates. While Valenzuela City was second to Singapore. Cebu ranked eighth with 44.28 and 55.72 percent; Penang in Malaysia landed in ninth place with 45 and 55 percent, followed by Bangkok in Thailand with 47.06 and 52.94 percent.

This brings me to the question how the online database Numbeo was able to achieve this safest city line? Last week, there was an 11-car pile up that literally shut down the Marcelo Fernan Bridge in Mandaue City not because car pile ups are a normal occurrence but because the weather was perfect that day and there was no rain to disturb drivers. Yet when a truck lost its brakes and bumped into on-coming traffic, it resulted to an unprecedented car pile up. That accident should get Cebu off the eighth place in the Safest City list.

Last Friday we drove 40 km south of Cebu City to Carcar to attend the formal blessing of Capilya del Santo Entierro, created by my cousin Manny “Boy” Valencia Castro who also operates the famous Balay na Tisa, the Carcar Heritage House built since 1859. The Valencia family always kept its family tradition of holding on and later decorating the Santo Entierro during the Good Friday procession in Carcar. But for most of the year, the Santo Entierro is kept covered beside the Balay na Tisa until the next procession.

So Manny Castro was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of finally building a small chapel which houses the Santo Entierro, together with many of his religious icons and artifacts, that someday I will write about in detail. Since it was a Friday, I expected the Friday rush hour traffic to slow our trip to Carcar…but somehow the trip only took us an hour and a half, which is a record for me. On our trip back to Cebu City, it was a record one-hour road trip. One hour was the usual time it took us from Cebu City to Carcar in the ’60s.

I really don’t know why there wasn’t any bad traffic last Friday. But one thing I can say about travelling the 40 km trip from Carcar to Cebu City… the serious lack of streetlights! Yes, driving the 40 km roadway, which is notorious for traffic congestion, seriously lacks streetlights. This only shows to you that despite Cebu’s being the eighth Safest City in Southeast Asia, we seriously need streetlights to light up the busy roadway.

If you drive to the town of Liloan 18 km north of Cebu City run by Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco, you will be surprised to see streetlights as if you were in the United States. Yes these streetlights were installed by her husband Duke Frasco when he became the Mayor and his wife Christina has kept the town of Liloan a beautiful town to visit. So while the town of Liloan has wonderful streetlights, it makes you wonder what the mayors of Minglanilla, Naga, San Fernando or Carcar are doing to make our streets safer?

Meanwhile, our traffic officers especially assigned at the South Road Properties (SRP) do not apprehend truck drivers that use the leftmost lane of the road when driving at the SRP. Honestly, I don’t blame these drivers who obviously lack driver’s education. I blame our traffic enforcers for allowing these slow moving vehicles to occupy the leftmost lane which only overtaking vehicles are allowed to use. Perhaps we should teach those supposedly professional drivers who teach students to drive in their driving schools.

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