CDO bursting at the seams.

Cagayan de Oro City has grown by leaps and bounds. This might be a trite characterization of a phenomenon which has crept up on its residence unnoticed but, a casual visitor is sure to observe that Cagayan de Oro City is indeed a city that is bursting at its seams. For one thing, the streets of Cagayan de Oro (CDO) are narrow. These streets served their purpose excellently forty or fifty years ago when the debate was whether to allow motorcycle-diven cabs to take the place of horse-driven tartanillas that had served the riding public ever since before the Second World War.

As history has shown, the motorcabs won and the horse-drawn tartanillas have gone the way of ancient relics; but, these vehicles which were copied from designs that are popular in many parts of the Philippines soon gave way to an invention which has held its own even today: the Motorela. This is a word which combines the words: motorized caretela.This invention is unique to Cagayan de Oro City and as a design I would say it is superior to the other designs which are based on the German motorcycle with a sidecar which we often see in WWII movies.

Going back to the topic of tremendous growth, one only has to take a ride on a jeepney from the downtown area going to Carmen or Patag or SM in order to get the feeling that indeed something is amiss. What I am talking about is bumper-to-bumper traffic almost at all hours of the day, not just during rush hour. The Marcos Bridge which had helped to alleviate the traffic situation several years back is also hard -pressed to ease the traffic congestion. I visited Cagayan de Oro a month ago and I noticed that work was being done to improve or widen or replace the Cagayan de Oro Bridge which for a long time was the only link between the two sections of the city being separated by the Cagayan de Oro River. This is welcome news although I doubt very much that it would do the trick.

What is the cause of this troublesome situation? Fifteen years ago, I was watching three Mayoral candidates, Manny Quisumbing who was running on the platform of opening Lotto outlets in the city, Erasmo Damasing who is a professional politician and Dongkoy Emano, another professional politician who had reached the limit of his term as Governor of Misamis Oriental and was poised to bring his executive skills to serve the citizens of Cagayan de Oro City. In the television debate, all three candidates were asked the question, "In your mind, what is the biggest problem being faced by the City of Cagayan de Oro?" Manny Quisumbing was first to answer and he said that the traffic problem was the biggest of all the other problems facing the city. The two other candidates affirmed that indeed, the traffic problem was the worst of all problems currently beseting the city. This little episode led me to believe that Manny Quisumbing the more intelligent of the three of them. I did not hear however, any words of wisdom regarding the solution of the problem. Just the problem being pointed out, nothing more.

This was almost ten years ago and the problem is still here. What gives?

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