Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella led the official switch on of the Plaza Sugbu Christmas tree on Monday night, December 2, 2019. | Photo grabbed from the Cebu City Public Information Office Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Bright lights will fill the premise of the Cebu City Hall and nearby landmarks at night during the duration of the Christmas celebration, but only for four hours each night.
Engineer Editha Peros, officer-in-charge of the Parks and Playgrounds Commission, said that they will only switch on Christmas trees and other decors from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. to conserve energy.
Peros said that while they wanted to make this year’s Christmas celebration memorable for the Cebuanos, they do not also want to waste government funds on the payment of the City Hall’s electricity bills that amounts to at least P12 million per month.
She said that putting a limit to their use of Christmas lights was also in compliance with the City Council’s request for energy conservation.
However, an exemption will be made for the Christmas tree that now stands at the Fuente Osmeña Circle that is being sponsored by a private entity.
But despite the limitation in the city’s electricity use, Peros is confident that Cebuanos and even tourists will still get to enjoy the city government’s Christmas offerings.
“Si Mayor (Edgardo) Labella ganahan kaayo siya nga bibo atong pasko sa Sugbo. Nindot pud nga naay Christmas tree sa mga parks nato aron malingaw pud ang mga tawo,” said Peros.
(Mayor Labella wanted the city’s Christmas celebration to be merry. It would also nice to have Christmas trees on our parks for people to enjoy.)
For the first time, the Cebu City government is lighting three 15-feet tall Christmas trees this year. The one located at the Plaza Sugbu was already lighted Monday night, December 2, 2019.
Mayor Labella and members of his family led the Christmas tree switch on.
The two others that are located at the Fort San Pedro and the Senior Citizens Park will be lighted starting on Friday, Dec. 6. Works on the two Christmas trees was temporarily suspended because of the bad weather caused by Typhoon Tisoy.
Metro Cebu, which includes Cebu City, was placed under Storm Signal No. 1 on Monday.
“We only allowed highly-skilled workers to do the work (on the Plaza Sugbu Christmas tree) because we could not cancel the lighting ceremony (scheduled Monday night),” she said.
Peros said they also had medical teams placed on standby to ensure the safety of the workers who were trying to finish Christmas tree then.
“Ang personnel naka harness and safety gear,”she added.
(Workers were also wearing harness and safety gears.)
Aside from the three Christmas trees, Peros said that they have also started to light Christmas decors which they placed on the center island of main thoroughfares in the city and in some of its parks. / dcb