June 10, 2021 MONEY appropriated by Congress for a big-ticket local project must be spent, often in a rush and with little concern for its effects during the construction and the problems it causes when opened and used.
To the Cebu City Council, that was sharply demonstrated by the P800 million Mambaling underpass, for which Cebu City commuters in the south district suffered a two-year ordeal from its construction in 2017 until its opening in June 2019 only to find little or no letup in the flooding and traffic problems the project was supposed to solve.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama in last April 28’s Sanggunian session used the word “stupid” nine times in describing the project. A Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) official admitted to the City Council on October 14, 2020 that implementation of the project was “a mistake from the start.”