What's Davao City's share of GMA's legacy?
JUST BY being an engineer does not a good city engineer makes. Like with the big named hospitals in the country which are managed or administered by non-doctors the city engineer's office needs a macro-manager, one who sees beyond the math and physics of infra projects which are the concerns of the engineers.A city engineer is one who should assist the chief executive in determining what and where the infrastructure projects are needed most and how will these benefit the constituency. He is a manager not the doer. In short, he does not need to be an engineer. Of course, the ideal thing is to have an engineer heads the city engineer's office for as long as that engineer knows the rudiments of management.
The CEO is not akin to a private construction firm. The CEO is part of a unique political setup that involves the nuances of politics, planners and public interests.
I am putting my two cents worth of idea on this subject because since the exit of Jun Evasco (who is now mayor of Maribojoc, Bohol) as head of the CEO, no one has yet been appointed to his post. An ideal candidate to the post would have been Mario Luis Jacinto who heads the City Planning and Development Office. Jacinto is an engineer too. But Louie, I heard, has begged off for health reasons.
Celso Gempesaw appears to be a man Mayor Duterte has great trust on. Problem is the mayor does not want to remove him from TMC (Traffic Management Center) because he is doing a great job managing traffic. I personally think that TMC is too small a task for Gempesaw it can now be passed on to a subaltern. If he is that good, Celso deserves bigger responsibilities like the CEO.
The City Engineer of Davao must look beyond what traditionally are the tasks of the CEO. I think that the past heads of this department have not done justice to the post.
Look at our road network. We are stuck with 2-lane and 4-lane roads. I do not know whether the engineers have done their homework in presenting plans to turn over some city roads to the national government. We have to conserve our resources and urge the national government to allocate funds for the construction, upgrading and maintenance of roads. This can only be done if we turnover these infrastructures to the national government. Over-passes built from the pork barrel of our congressmen are not the kind of structures we should prioritize. About 90% of these are useless and had served only as temporary abodes of rugby boys, stalls of ambulant vendors and worse, as latrines of vagabonds and addicts.
We need to widen our roads to six or eight lanes. Our city fathers must open their eyes to windows of opportunities. I mean, I think that Mayor Duterte is among the closest allies that President GMA held with high regard. Our city politicians, planners and engineers must come up with a wish list for Mayor Duterte to present to Malacanang. I think that the city officialdom have not asked for any special favors from the President. I would suggest, for example, that the national road south and north of Davao city poblacion be expanded to ease congestion. Or, consider building a parallel road to the existing highway. The city is growing and bursting at the seams. It is about time the national government allocate substantial budget for new infrastructures otherwise we will be suffocated at the rate progress is going on.
We have to ask GMA a share of her legacy. But even as the President may have a special fondness for our city and its leadership we have to show her workable plans and prove to her the significance of these plans before she will order the release of a single cent from the national coffers. This should be the main task as a starter for whoever will sit in the CEO chair.
