EDSA at CdO

“Traffic problem is part of the process of migration, urbanization and development of a metropolis, CdO included.

I thought I was in Edsa, impatient and antsy. But the environment was different. The road was not wide but narrow. While road widening and other support infrastructure projects are constantly ongoing at Edsa which accounts mostly for the gridlock, I did not see one along the road. Our van has not moved for about 20 minutes creating a queue, probably more than a kilometer long. It was like a long parking area of motor vehicles.

We worried about being late for dinner-party hosted by my daughter Princess Pala for the youngest among the brood, Paramanis Api. There must have been a terrible accident, I said. But another daughter, Panoro — a resident — told me that traffic has of late been horrendous at Cagayan de Oro (CdO) City, especially the Masterson Avenue at Upper Balulang.

If traffic in the said highway I just described is heavily congested, the roads at the downtown area are worse on specific days and time. One Sunday after coming from Del Monte, Bukidnon we passed by a district they call Cogon. I was appalled by the scene I saw. One wide street was closed while the peripheral four-lane roads became one lane because of the number of vehicles parked, others double-parked. The road was invaded by street hawkers, tiangge and ambulant vendors. Buyers jostled with pedestrians for space in the jampacked streets cum market. The chaotic situation was what President Digong described in his State of the Nation Address as an invasion of public roads. I thought they must have gotten an exemption from Memorandum Circular 2019-121 ordering the “CLEARING THE ROADS OF OBSTRUCTIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS from the DILG, else the City Mayor will be severely sanctioned. I wonder how they fared in the nationwide evaluation of the DILG. Will they face sanction for the wanton and open defiance of the order?

If traffic congestion, the sprout of giant supermalls, glitzy hotels and the multitude patronizing them are indicators of progress, then CdO could be one of the fastest growing cities in the south. But sadly, as always, progress is achieved at the expense of residents’ convenience and the eco-system.

I thought, this early the city government should be proactive and relentless in addressing the problem. It is a no brainer that road widening, repair and construction of new ones are practical solutions. In any developing metropolis there is a race between the increasing number of vehicles (an expert said on TV that there is an estimated 1 million new vehicles every year) and constructing new infrastructures to ease congestion. Their traffic enforcers should undergo seminar-trainings on traffic management. In another year, traffic at CdO might get worse than Metro Manila and other metropolis like Cebu. The discipline of motorists and pedestrians we see in Davao City is a factor for solution.

Traffic problem is part of the process of migration, urbanization and development of a metropolis, CdO included. Its effect on our life, career, eco-system and economy is tremendous. A published study made by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimated that traffic congestion now costs P 3.5 billion a day on opportunities lost. My golf mate, lawyer Arturo Tiu, by way of emphasizing the severity of the problem, made a forecast that anybody who can solve the problem will be a shoo-in for the Presidency.

Presidency Digong on Day 1 of his presidency realized the magnitude of the problem. After being advised by experts, he asked for an emergency power from Congress to address it. But solons suspicious that it could be abused failed to grant him the power. Or maybe, they have this subliminal wish for the failure of Digong, the interest of the motorists be damned. They just handed this administration a valid good excuse for failure to solve traffic problem.

Lately, Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, described traffic problem as a visible sign of economic progress. That’s a no brainer. What is moot is how the country policymakers like him address problems with rhetoric matched by action.

According to JICA, the “Build, Build, Build” program of the government which will produce big ticket infrastructure is estimated to reduce the economic loss from P 3.5 Billion a day to only about P3 Billion. And with the 25.3-km proposed subway or underground rail, it will be further reduced to P2.4 Billion. There’s hope after all.

It’s a bit of an irony that as man seeks progress and looks for ways to make life convenient like the use of vehicle, he also falls in a deep quagmire of inconvenience.