EDITORIAL - There is life even if BRT is cancelled

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Office of the Presidential Assistance for the Visayas are seeking for the cancellation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that is set to be implemented in Cebu City.

In a letter to the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic Development Authority, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino recommended for BRT's cancellation considering the delay in some aspects of the project and some other reasons.

BRT's fate will be known tomorrow when the NEDA-ICC will convene to decide whether or not to approve the project, for which Mayor Tomas Osmeña is pushing heaven and earth to be realized in the city.

It should not surprise Osmeña if the NEDA-ICC decides to disapprove the BRT. The project has met strong opposition not only from Dino but from other sectors as well owing to the city's narrow roads that, for them, would only make it hard for the buses to go along with other vehicles.

Yes, we can expect Osmeña to fight it out for the BRT. He already threatened that if the BRT is cancelled, he will report it to the World Bank and to the government of France, believing the Philippines will suffer the punishment of being blacklisted from international lending institutions.

But a NEDA-ICC rejection of the BRT should not stop Osmeña and other city officials from exploring other ideas in their effort to implement an integrated transport system in the city. BRT is not only the solution to the problem on the city's lack of a modern mass transit system.

Surely, there is life even if the BRT will no longer see the light of day. Osmeña and other city officials can always try, for example, a light railway system for the city even if many of them have long been opposing it given its huge cost.