12 years of Cebu BRT…

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) quest first started when then Cebu City mayor, Tomas Osmeña, requested assistance from the Public-Private Infrastructure Assistance Facility (PPIAF) on April 20, 2008. PPIAF approved it on Feb. 2, 2009. The Pre-Feasibility Study was done in 2009-2010, while the full feasibility study was completed in 2011-2012. Approval was deferred by NEDA on Nov. 29, 2012 but was finally issued on May 29, 2014.

Pre-implementation was started the next budget year, 2015, but the engagement of the crucial Technical Support Consultants (TSC) was overtaken by the 2016 elections. Unfortunately, the project thence suffered delay after delay. The TSC was crucial and it was finally engaged only on the later part of 2018. But not before DOTr, the very agency, which is its proponent and implementer, and OPAV, asked for its cancellation in a letter to NEDA-ICC in April of 2018. NEDA did not acquiesce, and the project continued.

The last solid news we had of the project was that it was cut in half, from the original Bulacao to Talamban alignment to one which just connect IT Park to SRP. Other changes were introduced to dampen the drastic changes which are remarkably substantial changes in scope and in cost which should have necessitated NEDA, and World Bank, re-evaluation and approval. There was no news that same were done or whether NEDA was informed, or its approval was requested for the changes. Probably not.

It’s already 12 years since 2008. If you asked me, the biggest impact of the 12 years, aside from the delay, is the unexplainable change in project substance. The BRT’s original design was the average Cebuano’s mobility from their homes to the city center where most work. That’s why it was supposed to connect Bulacao (and surrounding barangays) to the CBD, and similarly, Talamban and its surrounding barangays to the center. And it connects both to the SRP, too which was expected to generate jobs in the future. The BRT is supposed to run from Bulacao to Talamban, straight, and connects both to SRP seamlessly. It’s main dream was to ease the fellow Cebuanos’ suffering which we see in the throngs of people waiting for jeepneys in the morning, jostling for space to the detriment of old people, women, children, and those with disabilities – a pitiful sight we grew up seeing each day of our lives in decades past. You see this most clearly in N. Bacalso from Bulacao, and Banilad Road, from Talamban. That’s why having a route cut to connect IT, Park to SRP does not make sense! Who lives in IT Park? Who lives in SRP? Maybe a few who probably have cars and won’t ride the BRT to work.

And what happens to Bulacao and Talamban residents? Well, there are the modernized PUJs/PUVs they say, to serve as feeders. So, the average Cebuano who commutes from Bulacao to Talamban has to transfer – get down, walk, wait again for the next ride…twice! Same as going to the SRP – it’s the two-rides, three-rides, agony we suffered for half a century. Twelve long years…and this is what the BRT has become.