Home 
It’s “faster, safer and more reliable”, won’t cost Cebu City or the national government any “financial exposure” to build, and can coexist with the mayor’s preferred bus system.
With this, a transport official yesterday tried to answer Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s objections to a proposed $603 million Light Rail Transit (LRT) from Talisay to Mandaue City, and hopefully secure his endorsement.
“’The proposed Cebu Metro Rail Transit (CMRT) project will serve as the ‘backbone’ for the Metro Cebu Mass Transit system, wrote Guiling Mamondiong, Undersecretary for Rails of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC in an Oct. 23 letter to the mayor.
“It (the CMRT) would complement Mayor Tomas Osmeña's proposed Bus Rapid Transit System.”
He said both projects could use separate routes to prevent competition.
On the mayor’s worry the LRT project, backed by private investors, would jeopardize chances of a foreign loan for the BRT, Mamondiong said the BRT’s loan application “will never and cannot be affected by the implementation of the Cebu MRT” because the World Bank and Asian Development Bank “are among the world’s biggest and largest financial lending institutions that can afford to finance big projects requiring billions of dollars.”
Mamondiong said the CMRT which is a light rail transit operation could follow the straight line route proposed along the national highway from Talisay to Mandaue City.
A separate route for the proposed BRT would be identified in the Public Transport Strategic Plan for Metro Cebu which would be completed in 11 months.
The DOTC was criticized by Osmeña as “lousy” urban planners during an Oct. 17 presentation made to several Cebu congressmen and officials in Cebu City.
“We wish to inform the Honorable Mayor that the Metro Cebu MRT project has been thought out well, carefully planned and developed many years back,” clarified Mamondiong in his letter.
He said that the evaluation of project details and its financing scheme should be left to the “sound judgment” of concerned government agencies.
The DOTC official suggested that Mayor Osmeña in the project discussion in the Regional Development Council (RDC), when this is raised for endorsement.
Mamondiong said the LRT project is a private undertaking to be done on a build-gradual-transfer-operate-and-maintain (BGTOM) scheme. No government financing is needed.
Last Monday, Osmeña, however, categorically said he “rejects” the LRT project proposed by Cebu 1st District Rep. Eduardo Gullas.
Osmeña said he was wary of the project as another possible source of corruption like the ASEAN decorative lamppost deal, which he said was also offered at “no cost” to local government units.
Twelve benefits of the LRT were listed by Mamondiong. He said it would decongest Metro Cebu, disperse economic and tourism to the countryside, depollute the enviornment and provide cheaper, faster, saver transportation of goods and people.
He said the LRT is also expected to decongest routes that are now crowded by PUJs, reduce road maintenance, and promote inter-town trade.
“The rail is faster, safer and more reliable. It is mostly elevated and therefore its operation is not hampered by level crossing and flooding.”
A bus system in the BRT operates at street level which has road intersections.
The AMA Group Holdings Corp., part of a consoritum which conduted the feasibility study, proposed a boarding fee of P15 and 50 cents per kilometer of travel, a rate the mayor said was “unaffordable” to poor commuters.
