The three (3) highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and the four (4) component cities and six (6) municipalities of the province of Cebu now comprise what we now call Metro Cebu, Located on the central eastern side of Cebu Island from Danao City in the north to Carcar in the south, including Mactan Island, Metro Cebu is home to 2.5 million people when counted in the last 2010 census or 60 percent of the entire Cebu population.
Cebu City, the center of Metro Cebu, accounts for the biggest concentration of people at 866 thousand in 2010. This population which represents a third of Metro Cebu’s population also swells during daytime by 5 or 10 percent when people from its neighboring cities, towns and other places in the Visayas in Mindanao converge in the city either for work, education, medical services, shopping, entertainment and for many other varied purposes.
With over 2.5 million in population, Metro Cebu is the second-biggest urban and business center in the country next only to Metro Manila or the National Capital Region which registered a total head count of 11.8 million people in the 2010 census. Metro Cebu attained this status due to many factors such as its protected sea port that makes it the home of many interisland shipping companies that connect Cebu with Manila and almost all the islands in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Its international airport serves as the second gateway into the country, and its strategic location makes it the natural central place which provides higher level, if not better and more varied, services that many other people could not get from their own centers.
As it usually happens to many fast urbanizing economic centers, however, Cebu suffers from many ills. These include the increase of informal settlers (squatters and slum dwellers) who cannot afford good housing due to the rising cost of land and housing materials in Metro Cebu, traffic congestion as construction of new roads and widening of existing ones fall behind the growth in the number of vehicles plying the area, inadequate supply of water that limits the ability of the water district to reach all the people in its franchise area, inadequate drainage system that leads to flooding in many areas when it rains hard, poor sanitation from the mounting garbage that is left uncollected for days, the absence of a functioning sewerage system and a host of many other socioeconomic problems such as joblessness, poor health and education services and so forth.
As also happens in many fast-growing centers that fail to adequately provide basic infrastructure and services to its people, the quality of life in the city also deteriorates. All these factors led to the consequent decline of Metro Cebu’s competitiveness to attract private investments, both local and foreign. Lacking the necessary investments also results in a high level of unemployment/underemployment and low income which also translates to higher number of people living in poverty.
Also contributing to the rise of many problems in Metro Cebu today is the absence of a metro-wide study of its needs and the mechanism to plan and undertake the necessary interventions to make it more functional and productive as an integrated economic unit. Until today, for example, planning and implementation of programs and projects are done separately by the individual local governments units in the area which do not necessarily complement each other even if the problem being addressed is common to all of them.
Within Central Visayas is a functioning Regional Development Council. Put in place in the mid-1970s by the national government, the RDC’s task is to plan and coordinate the development of the region. To coordinate and direct the development of Metro Cebu, which at that time was defined only to comprise ten local government units from Compostela in the north to Naga in the south, including Mactan Island, the RDC in the 1990s created the Metro Cebu Development Council. Suspicion of the actual intent of the council along with fear of some LGU officials to play subordinate roles to the MCDC head chosen from one of them and the burden of contributing funds for its operation led eventually to its hibernation a few years later.
A few years ago, however, the idea was revived after seeing the fast deteriorating infrastructure and services in Metro Cebu that made it look like a typical dying Third World metropolis. This time, though, the initiative largely came from the business sector which sees a bright future for Metro Cebu if only its development is properly guided. And thus was created the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB) with members coming not only from local government units and regional government offices but also from different business groups in Metro Cebu.
It was soon realized though that the MCDCB needs a full-time support staff to function effectively. The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. came to the rescue. Soon, the MCDCB caught the attention of the Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA. JICA consultants came to help the MCDCB prepare its development vision.
The vision is “a vibrant, equitable, sustainable and competitive environment that embraces Cebu’s creativity and its cultural, historical and natural resources, with strong citizen participation and responsive government.” With this vision comes the need to prepare a roadmap to ensure that it is fully achieved. Started late last year, the Roadmap Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu being prepared by JICA consultants with counterpart Cebuano specialists will hopefully be finished by the end of this year.
Yet even while the roadmap is still being prepared, the MCDCB already came out with an initial list of priority projects which are ready for implementation for funding under the 2014 national government budget.
Many things still need to be done in Metro Cebu to make it more liveable and competitive. These are not easy to do but they become more doable if the MCDCB will eventually be transformed into some kind of authority with the power not only to plan but also to implement and direct the development of Metro Cebu with the support of the national and local government and the private sector.
Mabuhay Mega Cebu!
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