Even before the Palace invitation for a meeting on flyover projects with President Benigno Aquino III last year, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and flyover critics knew at the back of their minds that power politics was at play on a national level.
It came as no real surprise that former congressman Raul del Mar was confident about the outcome.
鈥淚f they (DPWH contractors) do it now or after the 2013 election, it doesn鈥檛 matter, as long as it gets done,鈥� he said last Saturday.
Del Mar has friends in the right places to get his multi-million-peso projects up in the north district.
He鈥檚 a trusted partner of聽 Bando Osme帽a-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and its boss Rep. Tomas Osme帽a of Cebu City鈥檚 south district, an avid propronent of flyovers.
Osme帽a is so well favored by the Palace administration and the Liberal Party that his mayoralty bid was an easy override amid protests of the card-bearing Liberal Party -member Mayor Michael Rama, who opposes flyovers as misplaced and overpriced road accessories.
A reelection of both veterans 鈥� del Mar and Osme帽a 鈥� would mean happy days again for flyover contractors executing each road bridge for聽聽 P200 million聽 to P400 million.
The Dept. of Public Works and Highways聽 treads carefully and avoids crossing the two heavyweights.
It鈥檚 tempting to to leave the ending to such traditional political equations.
Still,聽 there are peculiar elements聽 in the war over flyovers. For one, ordinary citizens are more outspoken now and getting organized,聽 with a clear-eyed vision of what kind of city they聽 want as persistent聽 proponents of a聽聽 Movement for a Livable Cebu.
Then there are mystery powers.
Del Mar was outmaneuvered聽聽 in 2007 by the invisible hand of Carmelite nuns when he almost got a flyover erected next to their convent in San Jose dela Montana.
The madres聽 didn鈥檛 bother posting banners or signing position papers.聽 They just prayed and sent word upstairs (to Malaca帽ang and beyond) that they didn鈥檛 want a massive vehicle overpass disturbing the solemnity of their聽 space.聽聽 The DPWH stopped and transferred the project to Banilad.
In the current dispute over the flyover in barangay Kasambagan, signatories of a protest letter to President Aquino include a Carmelite nun and representatives of two diocesan seminaries, aside from several business owners.聽聽聽聽 Round 2 for this match?
Was it a coincidence聽 as well that the flyover he lobbied for on聽 Gorordo Avenue last year got stalled in limbo by persistent nuns of the nearby聽 Asilo Milagrosa of the Miraculous Medal Church?聽聽 If you ask them what happened, they give credit to dawn 鈥渁urora鈥� masses and weekly 鈥淗oly Hour鈥� before an exposed Blessed Sacrament to fuel the citizens protest campaign.
It will be interesting indeed to see聽 how del Mar deals with what he calls the 鈥渘oisy few鈥� in consultations he promised would follow. They may chose to remind him that as a papal awardee himself, he聽 can鈥檛 easily shake off doing battle with religious warriors.