8 Special Reports
Editor: Lea Mat P. Vicencio
OCTOBER 25, 2016
Lacson flyover not enough to solve traffic woes AS THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) pushes through with the Lacson flyover construction in 2017 after four years of delay, it has yet to offer concrete assurance that it would ease traffic woes and not cause noise pollution in Manila’s congested Sampaloc district as well as the University Belt. Rodelio Tiburcio, chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering, said the four-lane flyover would not be wide enough to accommodate container trucks amid the continuous increase in car ownership. “[The Lacson flyover] would not be enough to eradicate traffic congestion because the main problem would be the increase in volume of cars and we are restricted by what is available to us. Otherwise road widening would be needed,” Tiburcio said in an interview with the Varsitarian. College of Architecture professor Felicisimo Tejuco pointed out that there had yet to be a proposal to decrease the number of vehicles on the streets.
Design changes The Lacson flyover project was supposed to start in September 2016, but was delayed due to changes in the design and various government approvals that needed to be secured. For instance, the flyover was lowered to second-level height from the initial third-level height after the proposal to build the Metro Rail Transit Line 9 was cancelled. The budget increased to P2.425 billion from P1.6 billion because of changes in the design. DPWH project manager Alex Bote said the construction of the flyover would begin three to four months after the submission of the detailed engineering design (DED) in February 2017. The DED incorporates the “final design, specifications, and estimates” of the structure. Approvals of the Regional Development Council, barangay chairmen and the National Economic and Development Authority are also needed to proceed with the implementation of the project.
A document obtained by the Varsitarian showed that the flyover design called for “reduction of volume of traffic, noise, intersection delay” and “improvement in road condition, air quality and job generation within the vicinity.” The flyover will start from Alcantara Street and end at Aragon Street. There will be a one-lane down ramp on Dimasalang Street. Noise pollution Engineer Lawrence Pangan of the Facilities Management Office warned that the construction of the flyover would worsen noise pollution, affecting classes in the Albertus Magnus and Roque Ruaño buildings. “Sound pollution has been affecting the Engineering and Education buildings. There are still complaints on cars passing by Lacson,” Pangan said. Sound barriers were proposed to reduce the noise that might be caused by the flyover. Bote said the proposal was included in the DED after the DPWH sent engineers to Japan
to “adopt up-to-date noise barriers” for the flyover. Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy O.P., in a previous interview, said noise barriers would be necessary for noise mitigation. “If you’re going to construct that then it will affect our Engineering building, our Education building and the hospital. And since it is a flyover then you have to come up [with] a mitigating [structure] to reduce the noise,” Dagohoy said. But Architecture Dean Rodolfo Ventura said sound barriers would not be sufficient in removing noise pollution. Noise barriers with a “landscape treatment” such as those on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue would be an improvement in the project design. “I oppose the [Lacson flyover] and it would definitely be not positive for UST. But given the scenario that we cannot win, the only direction we have right now is acceptance, and find a solution,” Ventura said. JOHN PAUL P. CORPUZ AND MA. CONSUELO DP. MARQUEZ
Slain cadet’s legacy in jeopardy as gov’t proposes to bring back mandatory ROTC IT has been 15 years since Mark Welson Chua was killed after exposing the anomalies in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program of the University. Chua’s death led to the abolition of mandatory ROTC and the passage of the National Service Training Program Act. But his legacy is in jeopardy due to the efforts of the Duterte administration and the Armed Forces to bring back mandatory ROTC. Mark Welson, then a 19-year-old a mechanical engineering student, and fellow cadet Romulo Yumul exposed the anomalies in UST-ROTC program to the Varsitarian in 2001. Two months after he exposed the corruption in the UST-ROTC, Mark was abducted on campus and was beaten at the UST Department of Military Science and Tactics (DMST) office on March 15, 2001. His decomposing body was fished out of the Pasig River, near Jones Bridge, three days later. His body had been wrapped in a carpet, and his hands and feet were hogtied. To suffocate him, his head was wrapped with duct tape. Mark was supposed to meet his father, Welson Chua in Makati after speaking to an agent supposedly offering him work in the military’s student intelligence network. Mark sent a text message to his father saying he was on his way. Hours later, the Chua family received a call claiming Mark had been kidnapped. The caller asked for a P3-million ransom. Three months after his death, Mark was posthumously awarded the San Lorenzo Ruiz Medal of Courage, for showing exceptional and exemplary courage in standing up for the truth and Thomasian ideals. His father Welson Chua, who died in 2008, received the award. Mark’s death led to the implementation of the National Service Training Program, abolishing the mandatory implementation of ROTC and adding other service options—Civic Welfare Training Service and Literacy Training Service. Both do not involve military training. Back story Evelyn Songco, former director of the Office of Student Affairs, recalled that prior to Mark’s death, his father filed complaints with her
office and gathered all the students concerned over the UST-ROTC program’s irregularities. “[We] gathered the people who had something to say when they wrote us a letter,” Songco told the Varsitarian. “Mark Chua was one of them and then of course he was afraid, and we secretly met. After the meeting they agreed to write their testimonies or their complaints, and passed it on to us,” she said. The complaints resulted in the removal of Maj. Demy Tejares, commandant of the University’s ROTC unit, along with the DMST staff. The narrative of the students was used by then Varsitarian Special Reports writer Jayme Emerald Brucal to write her story on the supposed anomalies and irregularities in the UST-ROTC. The complaints included bribery, forced payments, insufficient instruction and intimidation. “The hazing and initiation rites were also issues then—the excessive use of physicality to prove your ‘loyalty’ to the corps,” said lawyer Angelo de Alban, a UST professor and Mark’s batch mate in the UST Golden Corps of Cadets, in an email. Tejares, however, had nothing to do with the murder. He is now deputy commander of the Task Force Zambasulta, based in Basilan. Guilty Three years after Mark was fished out of the Pasig River, Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Romulo Lopez sentenced one of the accused, Arnulfo Aparri, Jr., to the maximum penalty of death. Death penalty however was abolished before the sentence could be carried out. Aparri, who was also ordered to pay P50,000 in indemnity to the Chuas, was then a high-ranking ROTC officer and an architecture student. Aparri surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation on Feb. 9, 2002. Former ROTC officer Franco Suelto, a suspect-turned-witness, identified Aparri as one of the men who wrapped Mark’s body using an old carpet inside the DMST office on the night of his murder on March 15, 2001. Suelto was then a psychology junior and a member of
the UST Golden Corps like the other suspects. Aparri’s co-accused—Paul Joseph Tan, Eduardo Tabrilla, and Michael Von Rainard Manangbao—were at large and issued alias warrants of arrest. A few years later, Tabrilla pleaded guilty to homicide before the Manila court. Mark as a cadet Known to his close friends as “Baron,” Mark had dreams of joining the army since he was in high school. He planned to enroll in the Philippine Military Academy after graduating from secondary school, but his grandparents refused, fearing that he might be discriminated against for being of Chinese descent. Mark pursued mechanical engineering in the University instead. But current DMST Commandant Edgar Nigos said Chua’s death was the result of a “personal conflict” with another cadet officer, whom he did not name. “The confrontation revolved around personal matters between [Chua] and a cadet officer. ROTC was just pulled into the spotlight because a cadet officer [used his power over the cadet],” he told the Varsitarian in a previous interview. Chua’s legacy in danger? Songco said students of private institutions should have the freedom to choose their college service training programs. “It can be mandatory in the state colleges and universities because that is funded by the government, [but] as to the private colleges and universities, there should really be some options for them because the government does not subsidize their tuition,” she said. Akbayan Youth Chairwoman Rafaela David said in an interview that reviving mandatory ROTC would be a disservice to Chua’s memory and legacy in higher education.
ROTC PAGE 5