Mixed feelings on road clearing

By BenCyrus Ellorin

I DO not know if I should cheer or jeer on the impact of the road clearing operations.

The context of the order of the President to do clearing operations on public roads, during his last Sona, to my understanding, was the traffic problem. He may have been right. As the order is now being implemented seriously, when the DILG breathing down the necks of LGUs, the biggest cause of obstruction seems to be government itself.

That definitely is a jeer.

The staircase at Cogon market, for example, and canopy was a city hall-funded project that cost millions of pesos, if I am not mistaken. Now it is gone. Cheers or jeers? Same with the concrete barangay hall in one of the barangays.

There will be more like that. At the junction of the national highway and Macapagal Road in Bulua, two government-built structures are now standing on road space — that useless traffic light and useless overpass, which is actually a billboard platform. Poor planning. The six-lane road plan along our national highways is at least 10 years old. But why oh why?

Now it is clear why that man in capitol is going ballistic over a slight insinuation that city hall would clean up its premises if it fails to do so. It actually was a way of saying: Clean up! Now is Bambi’s refusal a testament, that someone is hugawan? Jeers.

Bambi came up with a litany of city hall failures on traffic, etc, etc.. Did he just place his foot in the mouth? Were the ill-planned traffic system and behestful overpasses built by the business of the family of a city councilor monumental proof of hard problems left by his late father? Now that is a huge jeer.

Now, finally, the roads, some, have finally breathed. The rush hour congestion in the Bulua highway has eased a bit. Cheers to that.

If any lesson is to be learned in this road clearing experience, bad planning is expensive, wasteful of public funds and causes public inconvenience. Jeers to that.

Cagayan de Oro getting medium compliance from the DILG is good enough. It means something good has been done. A cheer for that… but much more still needs to be done. Clear the capitol roads. Ignore the one having a bad hair day.