CEBU CITY – Describing the traffic situation in Metro Cebu as “worsening and reaching crisis proportion,” Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has signed an executive order creating the Cebu Traffic Management Board.
Under Executive Order No. 24, the board will be headed by Garcia as chairman and the regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Central Visayas as vice chairman.
The chairman of the provincial board committee on planning and development, the PB chairman on the committee on public works, highways, and infrastructure, the regional director of the Land Transportation Office, the provincial director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and regional director of the Highway Patrol Group are members.
An advisory council was also created to assist the board. It will be composed of the mayors of all component cities of Cebu as well as mayors or representative of Cebu City, Mandaue City, and Lapu-Lapu City; and president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.
The creation of the board came a month after the PB approved a resolution declaring a traffic crisis in Metro Cebu.
In his resolution, PB Member Glenn Soco said that according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Cebu is losing P1.1 billion a day due to the worsening traffic.
Garcia said pulling the various government units together may just be the solution to address the traffic issues.
“I take upon myself the duty to see to it that we shall work together with our local government units, with the proper government agencies, in order that we may once again restore order in our national roads and that the safety, convenience, and general welfare of our constituents shall be ensured,” Garcia said. (Calvin Cordova)