T.I.C. - Cebu City's Unique Answer to Unmitigated Street Diggings

The official seal of the Technical Infrastructure Committee
of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Cebu City

Solving an Age-old Urban Problem

Rationalizing street diggings have always been a headache for local government units. Well-paved city streets are dug open to accommodate the laying of main service lines of private utility companies and to provide space for utility posts upon which electrical connections and service utility lines of telecommunication companies are strung in long lines of overhead cables which mar the City’s skyline. More often than not, these overhead wires tend to dangle loosely to pose traffic hazards to both motorists and pedestrians. Fire trucks of the City’s fire department cannot enter streets of fire-stricken areas because of these dangling service wires which impede their entry into the scene of fire.

To solve such hazardous dangling overhead wires and to prevent untimely and repeated destruction of well-paved city thoroughfares the City of Cebu ventured to put up a service committee to regulate street diggings and the laying down of utility posts. This gave birth to the foundation of the Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC) of the City of Cebu.

Unique Development Partnership

Of the more than 117 cities in the Philippines, only the City of Cebu has the capability to view infrastructure and social development problems holistically, with a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach in urban issues solutions where the local government unit of Cebu City act as a catalyst and integrator of community development efforts interfaced with social and economic dimensions, having the development components of – Industry, Business, National Government Line Agencies and Civil Society – acting as partners in nation-building on the local level.

TIC Has Presidential Mandate

Once upon a time in the past the other component cities and some municipalities in Metro Cebu, were part of a cohesive urban problem-solving group known as Metro Cebu Coordinating Council funded by an RDC-driven scheme – the Metro Cebu Development Project with foreign funding assistance and made possible with the Administrative Order of then President Aquino issued by Executive Secretary Franklin M. Drilon on April 2, 1990.

What is TIC?

The Technical Infrastructure Committee (TIC) is a task force organized by the MCCC (Metro Cebu Coordinating Council) as an implementing arm to pursue its program of action in Metro Cebu.

TIC is a unique management mechanism of rationalizing and coordinating steps in the solution of infrastructure concerns affecting Metro Cebu.

TIC is covered by the Cebu City Ordinance No. 2135 and has its own implementing rules and regulations for its enforcement. Thus a highly-urbanized city – City of Cebu – has finally grabbed the horns of a pesky dilemma and came up with a sustaining relevant solution.

TIC Rationale

The rules and guidelines on projects especially for road diggings and excavation permits are as follows:
a. Application for excavation permits should be submitted to the TIC;
b. Endorsement from TIC must be signed by the TIC Chairman to the agencies concerned;
c. Approval from the City Engineer’s Office;
d. Upon approval of excavation permit or before starting the permit it is required that barricades, warning signs, evening lights and especially billboards should be placed on the site.

Metro Cebu TIC’s Impressive Success

MCCC’s rationalization of infrastructure activities scored impressive successes which was the envy of Metro Manila Development Authority which frequently suffers from divisiveness because many mayors of Metro Manila have the propensity to agree to disagree with the Metro Manila Governor as well as among themselves on prioritization of infrastructure concerns.

TIC’s History

TIC was born on April 20, 1992 when former President Corazon C. Aquino through her Executive Secretary Franklin Drilon issued an Administrative Order No. 172 “pursuant to Section 3 (1) of Administrative Order no. 172, Series of 1990, creating Metro Cebu Coordinating Council for road excavations, restorations and other related infrastructure activities.”

To his credit, the City of Cebu under Mayor Tomas Osmeña responded by motivating the Sangguniang Panlungsod to enact Cebu City’s counterpart ordinances and resolutions. Thus was born the country’s only effective coordinative body that is actively pursuing a rational and logical approach in the management of controversial road construction, street diggings, excavations, road widening and regulation of private utility companies’ primary and secondary service lines, service drops and other line hardwares, and other infrastructure-related concerns thereby promoting general public welfare.

Metro-wide Spread

Before the creation of TIC and during the 2nd term of Mayor Tomas Osmeña there were rampant diggings and excavations made by the utility companies. Hon. Tomas Osmeña decided to organize a committee called MCCC “Metro Cebu Technical Infrastructure Committee” that will regulate road diggings, excavations, aerial cable lines, underground water service lines and other infrastructure problems, including those infrastructure facilities belonging to the respective barangays of Cebu City. Mayor Tomas Osmeña organized MCCC, but when the MCDP reached its terminal phase only Cebu City opted to continue the integrated development problem-solving approach. The other MCDP members were unwilling to shoulder the cost of the holistic scheme of urban development problem-solving concept characterized by a management system style rather than the traditional parochial way of piece-meal, fragmented and not cost-effective development endeavors. Mayor Tomas plays the role of big brother despite the highly individualistic style of public management by the other LGUs who are now inactive members of the Metro Cebu Coordinating Council nevertheless continue to enjoy the generous technical services of the Cebu City TIC inspectorate teams which continue to monitor and evaluate street diggings and excavations of private utility companies in their respective areas’ territorial jurisdictions even without their request. This shows the brotherly concern of Mayor Osmeña towards his fellow mayors underscoring the subnational development leadership of Cebu City.

Whenever international conferences are situated in the Cebu Island, the Cebu City Technical Infrastructure Committee goes into action to support such noble national endeavors, including even the yearly observance of the Sinulog of Cebu and other major sports activities by imposing moto propio the holding of moratoria on street diggings and excavations along the usual ceremonial routes.

Cebu City TIC silently serves the good people of Cebu without fanfare and expectations of recognition and reward. We stand ready to serve.

TIC Activities

1. Providing assistance for bundling truck to the utility group for their bundling activities of dangling spaghetti wires of utility companies;
2. Intervention of the TIC as the coordinating body for the implementation of the color coding of the utility group;
3. The TIC has its own Inspectorate Team which is composed of utility companies and agencies’ technical representatives concerned to closely monitors its street diggings, excavations, aerial communication lines, and other infrastructure projects, schedules every Thursday of the week. They also evaluate the quality of restoration efforts of street diggings by the utility companies. If the TIC Inspectorate Team is not satisfied with the quality of work in the restoration endeavors, they will submit their report to the TIC body which will now direct the erring utility company or government agency to redo the restoration work or else the City of Cebu will undertake the restoration work and charge the concerned company with the cost of restoration.

City Ordinances of the TIC

1. City Ordinance 1647 – Approved October 7, 1996
Amending Sections (3), 4, 5, 11(b), of Ordinance 1918 (known as ordinance “regulating street diggings and providing penalties for violations thereof”).
2. City Ordinance 2410 – Approved March 11, 1996
Approving the City Ordinance 1618 – an ordinance regulating street diggings and providing penalties for violators thereof.
3. City Ordinance 1894 – Approved April 4, 2001
Ordinance creating the Utility Lines Installations Coordinating Committee as sub-committee of the existing Technical Infrastructure Committee provided in City Ordinance 1618.
4. City Ordinance 2092 – Approved September 13, 2006
Ordinance requiring utility companies to make their own service/contractor crews to wear uniforms and IDs while servicing utility posts service lines to prevent undue pilfering or tampering of competitor lines.



TIC Board Resolutions, Series of 2007

1. Resolution No. 1 – Naming PLDT as the team leader for bundling activities by the utility companies.
2. Resolution No. 2 – Interservice cooperation between LGUs and private utility companies.
3. Resolution No. 3 – Information gathering on stolen goods.
4. Resolution No. 4 – Integrated Planning Efforts – Need for consultative and coordinative planning of road projects between DPWH and private utility companies.

Resolutions Sponsored by Councilor Archival for TIC
1. Resolution No. 07-209 – Approved July 25, 2007
Directing all utility companies to continue in bundling of their respective utility wires and to start the color coding of the bundling for a better and cleaner Cebu and name PLDT as the lead composite agency for the bundling of the telecommunications utility wires.
2. Resolution No. 07-457 – Approved August 22, 2007
Requesting DPWH to expedite the concreting of sidewalk along Escario Street to avoid inconvenience to the residents of the City of Cebu through the Technical Infrastructure Committee before commencing any of its infrastructure projects.
3. Resolution No. 07-719 – Approved September 19, 2007
Requesting all utility companies to make an inventory of their respective utility posts by putting tags on the post bearing the company’s name and post serial number and submit the same to the TIC.

-LCM

TIC’s Presiding Officer for Administration is Dr. Lindy Crisolo Morrell who holds a Doctoral Degree in Environmental Management Communication from the School of Engineering of Stratford International University based in the U.S. State of Wyoming; and a Doctor of Letters in Journalism from St. Clements University in the British West Indies Islands of Turks and Caicos near Bermuda. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines and is a Fellow of the Design, Technology and Management Society International (DTMSI) based in Ladismith Cape, South Africa. He is a retired Regional Executive Director of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and is an awardee of the UP Alumni Association in Dilliman, Quezon City on April 16, 1977 for rendering outstanding services in Muslim Mindanao.

Let Us Purge the Politics of Corruption

This article was published in the April 8, 2007 Issue of the Bag-ong Lungsoranon*, page 5.

The Growing Lust for Power

Many candidates run for public office claiming they want to serve the people. But once elected they reveal the real motive for their candidacy. They do not really want to govern. They want to just rule. Powerplaying is the name of the game.

With political power comes the collateral benefits: Revenue Generation. The capability to fill vacant positions in the government with their own choice protegees. Strengthening their power bases and demolition of those of their political rivals. They can firm up their links with big business establishments so they can tap contributions to enrich their political coffers. As the term limits for their political tenure approaches they can contrive that a close blood kin will take their political seats thereby ensuring the longevity of their dynasties.

These are the unfortunate hallmarks of Philippine Public Governance today: The Politics of Corruption.

Tapping the Unused Clout of the Laity

While the clergy in the Church are doing their bit in christianizing the political culture in the country the majority of the laity in the Church are suffering from political apathy. Although they are up and about doing their daily chores yet they remain totally indifferent to what is happening to the political culture in the country. Perhaps they are unaware of the political reality that the authority of the government emanates from the people --- not from sitting politicians.

Wrong Grievance Mechanisms

Too often the citizenry express their discontent on governance inadequacy and failings by having the military stage “kudetas” or to resort to risky exercise of radical people power ala EDSA.

Accountability Parish Level Dialogues

People Power ala EDSA is too confrontational and too narrow in focus. What is needed is the exercise of a kind of people power that offers no opportunity for display of public agitation supported by acts of vandalism and violence and even bloodshed.

The missing link is the activation of the citizenry gathered in parish assemblies to serve as the venue for political candidates to undergo face-to-face scrutiny, answer the concerns of the parish community on issues which the parishioners of the parishes involved in accountability dialogues.

In such public forum the citizenry can ask the candidates to inform the parishioners of their qualifications and credentials for which they are running for. The parishioners can also request the candidates to present their platforms, plans and programs of governance as well as their discernment of priority concerns which the candidates hopes to focus on and to ask for the community’s support. Possibly one dialogue won’t suffice so a series of public parish pastoral accountability assemblies will have to be undertaken. Such interchange of ideas on pressing concerns on national and local issues should be the model for grassroots democracy in action. The desirability or unfitness of the candidates for the positions they are aiming for will be exposed. The parish accountability level dialogue serves as a screening filter for public officials.

Sacramentalize the Public Compact

Such parish pastoral accountability assemblies must always be preceded by a parish reflection the night before the dialogue and further preceded by the celebration of the Holy Eucharist of the Mass to instill a sacramental aura to the public event. This paves the way to the exercise of a Catholic Conscience by the candidates and the parishioners.

In effect a public commitment to political reforms will arise from such accountability dialogue in the character of a sacred compact between the candidates and the people to purge the politics of corruption in our governance system. This is a down-to-earth feeling of the people’s pulse. Even national politics can be influenced on the parish level. Let us drive the devil out of politics. Let the Cebuanos show the way to professionalized politics.

-LCM

*Bag-ong Lungsoranon is the Diocesan Publication of the Archdiocese of Cebu (Philippines).

The Tale of a Toppled Cross

A feature story that reveals how a small community inhabited by people with small-time dreams of their own better their lives by setting aside those dreams to respond to a greater call of service to God and the community and transform what begun as a small family chapel for worship, degraded by a ruthless war-time foe to become a lowly stable for cavalry war horses, and transform it to a lofty parish church in response to a heavenly challenge.

A Tiny Chapel

Way back in 1938 a tiny chapel was built in Lahug, Cebu City by Dr. Virgilio Gonzales and his wife to fulfill a solemn promise. The chapel’s Patron Saint was St. Therese of the Little Flower of Jesus from Lisieux, France. The chapel was catered to a select cluster of families and close friends of the Gonzales clan.

When the Second World War broke out the Japanese Imperial Forces invaded Cebu in April 1942 and began more than three years of Japanese occupation.

Chapel Becomes a Stable

Japanese armed forces found the chapel to be a convenient site for storing military supplies. Later, when a troop of Japanese horse-mounted cavalry arrived in Lahug the chapel became merely a stable. Once again Jesus Christ found himself in a stable. Only this time there were no adoring shepherds nor visiting magis to honor Jesus. Just snorting horses and grunting grooms were there to pay no attention to Christ Jesus. Lahug became just like uncaring Bethlehem during the infant days of the savior.

As the days of American liberation became imminent in 1945, the occupying Japanese troops pursued a scorched earth policy by razing civilian houses to the ground. As a consequence the homeless civilians had to hunt for housing materials they could lay their hands on. The deserted chapel which was damaged by war action proved to be a tempting target. They pounced upon the chapel ripping apart whatever wooden materials they could grab. The G.I. roofing vanished. Walls shattered. Only a few columns were left standing together with a desolate belfry with a cross on top. The chapel’s desecration was complete. Years passed by. The chapel ruins was left exposed to the elements.

One stormy evening in the 50’s the registrar of Southern College (now University of Southern Philippines Foundation), Juan Alburo, who lives near the wrecked chapel was watching the skies. The electrical thunderstorm was getting worse.

Suddenly a flash of lightning struck the cross on top of the belfry. The cross toppled to the ground. A wave of uneasiness gripped Juan Alburo. He made the sign of the cross. What could this mean? He asked himself. An odd insight dawned on him. “Rebuild my Church!” Christ spoke to Alburo.

Initial Rejection

Ridiculous! Alburo told himself. Why me? I’m just a worn-out, tired war veteran. I simply don’t have the resources nor talent to do any major project. What more of the gigantic task of rebuilding a devastated chapel? Besides I don’t even own the property.

The Second Call

A few days after the incident a close friend of Juan Alburo, a priest by the name of Rev. Father Veronico Salvador, paid Alburo a visit. After Juan Alburo narrated the vision of the falling cross Rev. Father Veronico Salvador gently told Alburo: “You must heed Christ’s appeal to you. You must rebuild the chapel. That fallen cross is a signal for you to take up Christ’s cross.”

“But how do I begin? Where do I start?” bewailed Alburo.

“Begin by praying to the Holy Spirit for guidance,” intoned the priest. Alburo could only nod in acceptance.

In one of his reflections Alburo recalled the lines of Lord Alfred Tennyson which went: “More things are wrought in prayer than this world dreams of.” This insight flared up a burning zeal of enthusiasm in him. “Why not?” he challenged himself. Thus began the arduous task of reconstruction. Alburo mobilized his friends and as many people as he could involve in the project. They caught the fire of his enthusiasm.

A Mish-Mash Chapel

Shortage of building materials was no obstacle to Juan Alburo. He became a master scrounger. Nipa thatchings for roofing materials. Sawali sheets for walling. Even a discarded altar from the Redemptorist Church became the chapel’s main altar.

The First Mass

On March 19, 1959, Rev. Fr. Pedrito Dean celebrated the first mass in the rehabilitated chapel. Fr. Dean would soon become the Archbishop of Palo, Leyte.

What was startling significant about the day was the fact that March 19 is the feast day of St. Joseph, the Master Carpenter who was Jesus Christ’s guardian here on earth. So what if the chapel was of mixed materials? The toppled cross was restored!

Growth of the Lahug Community

From a small cluster of few families the base of worshippers of the chapel grew by leaps and bounds. Unexpectedly, the Archbishop of Cebu, Julio Cardinal Rosales, bestowed on the chapel a distinctive honor of becoming a full-fledge parish church on February 11, 1964. A small cross had fallen only to be replaced by a much bigger one. From a humble chapel to a full grown parish church. All it took was faith. The faith of one man, Juan Alburo.

On March 11, 2000, the relics of St. Therese, the patron saint of the once tiny chapel would visit the Lahug Parish Church. A fitting honor for the Lahug Community.

Rev. Fr. Raul Gallego, the parish priest will celebrate a thanksgiving mass while Rev. Fr. Vic Labao, S.J. will deliver the homily. A brief biography of St. Therese will be read by a lay leader, Evit Trocino after which a three hour vigil after the 9 pm mass will be observed by the faithful. The relics will be transferred to San Carlos seminaries in a solemn procession with the devotees bearing lighted candles, torches and roses in honor of the patron saint. Before the end of March the parishioners of St. Therese Parish will return the compliment of the relic’s visit by having a delegation of 60 parishioners headed by the parish pastoral council member Linda Laborte, flying all the way of the town of St. Therese in Lisieux, France. One good turn deserves another.

Timely Reminder

The visit of the relics of St. Therese and the unfolding of the story of the toppled cross is a timely reminder in this age of secular materialism and sophisticated information technology that stone structures do not make a church. It takes people to make a living Church. When the people of the Lahug Community were busy rebuilding the wrecked chapel they were actually building themselves into a dynamic Community of the Faithful. That Christ’s cross can remain fallen only if the faithful allows it.

-LCM