Reviewing abandoned projects

While going to my small garden in the mountain barangay of Paril, this city last week, I saw somewhere in Barangay Talamban, few road concreting jobs. In some stretches, about 2 to 3 meters were added to expand the road sides running about twenty lineal meters. To my mind, these were portions of the road widening project which was launched in 2010 yet. In my recollection, the widening was supposed to start somewhere at the back of Talamban Sports Complex passing thru Barangay Bacayan and ending in Barangay Pit-os, to make it into a four-lane highway. I also remember that it had an allocation of about P156 million. Of course, the memory of the septuagenarian years that I carry may no longer be that accurate.

Fifteen years ago, when the traffic in the Talamban-Pit-os road stretch was still light, the road widening construction began in a rather fast manner. Red markers were painted on structures that were to be affected as indications for demolition. In fact, there were houses which stood on the project area that were demolished while those that were still to be built along the stretch had to be set back. The widened road was designed in anticipation of the increasing volume of traffic.

Then, ningas cogon, which the internet accurately describes as a Filipino idiom describing the tendency to start a task or project with great enthusiasm but to lose interest and fail to complete it, like how the cogon grass burns brightly but briefly, set in. The brouhaha that attended the launching of the project began to fade. In the days that followed, it was noticeable that work gangs became fewer. No sooner, it looked like the project was abandoned. Pieces of heavy equipment were just pulled out and workers disappeared from job sites. There were no public announcements why it stopped.

I wrote many times in this column the questions that people raised. They wanted to know if the project was to be completed, if at all, or why it was abandoned. It was even reported in our local dailies that a city councilor delivered privilege speeches to inquire on the status of the project. When there appeared no reaction from our officials a kind of explanation for the cessation of the work, I asked, in few more articles, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audits to investigate. Still nothing happened. Maybe these constitutional watchdogs never heard of this project being in limbo.

In the early days of this administration of Cebu City Mayor Nestor D. Archival, I met a man who works closely with the mayor in a private capacity. I do not have his permission to mention his name here. I presented to him this Talamban-Pit-os 2010 road widening project and he promised to call Mayor Archival’s attention.

When I saw, last week, the concreting done not very far from the Talamban Sports Complex, I imagined of the confluence of two factors that push the present leadership to retrieve this project from the depths of buried and forgotten endeavors, albeit belatedly. First, Mayor Archival, realizing the importance of this project, wanted to complete it. Mas vale tarde que nunca. It will be a feather to his cap. This road serves about 10 mountain barangays and maybe the mayor has found out that are still remaining funds to use. Second, our country feels the outrage of public funds, in trillions of pesos, being plundered by corrupt people. Cebuanos might attach, even if off-tangentially, this unfinished project to the raging issue of corruption called “flood control projects.” Our officials need to prevent a domino effect.

If this retrieval of the Talamban-Pit-os road is a welcome sign of Mayor Archival’s attentiveness to unfinished endeavors, I expect him to look at a still road widening project at M.J. Cuenco from corner Gen Maxilom Avenue to the Ayala Access road that is left unfinished. Happy hunting, Mayor!