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CEBU CITY, Philippines ? The Cebu South Coastal Road has been declared a national road.
This means that the Cebu City government no longer controls the road that connects Cebu City to Talisay City, said Representative Eduardo Gullas of Cebu?s 1st district on Tuesday.
Quoting the department order 66-2008 of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) dated December 16, 2008, Gullas said the coastal road is now under the management of the national government.
The coastal road passes through the South Road Properties before reaching Talisay.
He said the order will prevent previous instances where the Cebu City government closed the road for public use.
?No mayor can close it now, except...when there are emergencies or cases (of public safety),? Gullas said.
He was referring to the move of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to close down the coastal road at the height of his word war with Gullas over the ownership of some portions of the SRP.
Only those vehicles with SRP passes issued by Cebu City Hall could pass through the coastal road. Osmeña was eventually stopped by the court, which ordered him to open it to the motorists.
?But let's not talk ill about Tomas. Let's not talk ill because he is sick. Instead we should all pray for him,? Gullas said.
The congressman also cited having no problems for the funds to maintain the coastal road because Congress had already allocated a funding-per-kilometer on the road project.
Gullas said the Cebu South Coastal Road Project (CSCRP) cost the government about P6.024 billion including the underground tunnel which passes under the Cebu City Plaza Independencia.
He said the tunnel, which is 57 percent completed, is will be finished by November this year.
Meanwhile, Gullas questioned DPWH's decision to tap Manila-based contractors to undertake Cebu North Coastal Road Project (CNRP), which complements the CSCRP.
He cited the out-of-town contractors as a factor in the delay of the CNCRP.
He said he was concerned with the delays in the completion of the CNRP because it ?compliments? the CSCRP which he had pushed and asked from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001.
?It (CSCRP) will lose its efficiency and purpose without the CNCRP because we wanted (a faster access) from Talisay to Liloan and Consolacion without having to pass through the traffic in Cebu City and Mandaue that have become bottlenecks,? said Gullas in a press conference on Tuesday.
Engineer Nilo Pamayla-on, Metro Cebu Development Project director of the DPWH, said the Ciriaco firm was performing well as far as the Cansaga bridge construction is concerned.
He said Gullas comments might be ?his own observation.? /Reporter Dale G. Israel
