Metropolization, mass transport eyed to solve Oro’s traffic woes

DECONGESTING Cagayan de Oro City’s central business district, better enforcement of traffic laws, and expediting the city’s metropolization by creating more urban centers were some of the solutions proposed by the administration, opposition, and independent candidates running for the city’s 1st district council seats in a candidates forum today.

“For now, the solution that we can see that can directly address (traffic congestion) is metropolization of Cagayan de Oro…for now what (is being offered) is a traffic re-route plan (to rationalize traffic flow and alleviate the inconvenience of city residents). About 80 percent of those using the roads are public utility vehicles (PUVs) and private motorists and 20 percent are pedestrians. So we can probably build more pathways to encourage biking and walking,” council candidate Imee Moreno said during the Pag-Ila forum held at Xavier University’s Little Theater venue.

Moreno, the only daughter of outgoing Cagayan de Oro City Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Oscar Moreno, said this in response to a question posed by one of the moderators of the forum concerning the city’s traffic congestion.

Introducing herself as a businesswoman and ‘neophyte’ candidate, Moreno acknowledged that traffic congestion is a perennial problem for the city which she said is the ‘convergence hub’ of northern Mindanao.

“(The city can help facilitate) the modernization of our mass transport system as pushed by the Department of Transportation. But it’s through the metropolization of Cagayan de Oro (and its neighboring local governments) that the city can be in a better position to secure national government support for programs like the Mindanao railway project, the skyways, overpasses, and all the infrastructure we need to help connect us to the rest of northern Mindanao,” Moreno said.

Other candidates in the administration One MisOr-One CDO coalition like incumbent Councilor Roger Abaday called for the development of urban centers in the city’s upland barangays. His fellow local administration candidate Oscar Salcedo, a former regional director of the Land Transportation Office, said better traffic education, enforcement of traffic laws, and engineering are the core elements of traffic management.

“We also need to build more access roads and install an improved traffic lights system. But these three core elements are essential to better traffic management,” Salcedo said.

Opposition candidate Mandangan Darimbang, a former regional director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, called for a comprehensive traffic management plan while independent candidate Bert Amplayo called for technical experts to craft the city’s traffic management roadmap.

“Most of our councilors are lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and politicians. Nothing against them but we need technical experts because traffic management is a technical problem. What we need to do is to decongest the city. The city’s traffic is concentrated in the central business district. So we need to build more urban growth areas (to decongest the traffic),” Amplayo said.

This morning’s Pag-Ila 2022 candidates forum is the first of a four-part series spearheaded by Xavier University focused on candidates running for Cagayan de Oro City’s local positions as well as the gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial posts of Misamis Oriental. The program is broadcast live over Parasat TV Cable channel 24 and streamed live on the Facebook pages of Parasat HD, and Rappler.