This delay is criminal neglect

I was sipping my favorite cappuccino in the coffee shop of a plush uptown hotel when a friend of mine, a responsible senior citizen approached me. We haven’t seen each other for years and while I previously heard that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, that progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die, he was otherwise healthy. In our discussion, he showed no decline in his thinking nor any apparent diminution of his behavioral and social skills. No dementia of sort. Voila, he was still quite sharp.

The gentleman was frank. The reason he approached me was the article I wrote last week. In my column, I expressed the opinion that there is more an urgent need for the new administration of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to widen two city roads rather than plunge itself right away into the development of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). I then pointed out the humongous daily traffic jams occurring in the uptown areas of Barangays Lahug, Apas, Luz and Mabolo. I mentioned particularly the San Jose de la Montana/Salinas Drive as needing to be widened and Cabantan Street to be straightened and also to be widened. My friend did not question the priority I cited for the government to work on. He stated that there is a project that had already started but seemingly abandoned for no apparent reason. Yes, he clearly remembered what I forgot.

As part of his astonishing memory, my friend asked me what has happened to the project of widening the road from Talamban to Pit-os. I could give no answer. The infrastructure work was supposed to start somewhere at the back of the Talamban Sports facility and end in Pit-os near its barangay hall. According to him, it was sometime in 2010 that portions of structures near the Talamban gym were already torn down to pave the way for the project. Red markings in fact, were written on structures from Talamban to Pit-os to indicate the width of the widened road and the structures affected. My gentleman friend is not afflicted with Alzheimer's disease as he recalled that about P156 million had been appropriated for the RROW. While I do not distinctly remember the budgetary allocation, I also forgot more than 10 years ago this project somehow took off.

That this project is both necessary and important is evidenced by the fact that the city government allocated a huge amount of money more than a decade ago. Why it has not been completed triggers a ton of questions. Has the appropriation been entirely spent? Is there no more money with which to continue the project? If there is no more fund left, we cannot help but remark that the output thus far achieved does not justify the huge expenditure. So much money has been expended but so little has been done. What has been accomplished is too small compared to the money used. This obvious disparity is, by all indications, a red flag of corruption.

If, on the other hand, there is still money that is unspent, we ask why is the project mothballed? Who is responsible for delaying the completion of this project? In a way, the stoppage of the work is not just plain administrative misfeasance, it is criminal neglect.

My friend now asks Mayor Rama to give his full attention to this much-delayed project.