The heritage map of Bogo City. (https://cityofbogocebu.gov.ph/)
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Neither a storm nor the present coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic “could stop Bogo City from marching towards development.”
This was the message of Bogo City Mayor Carlo Martinez as the city celebrates this Tuesday, June 16, 2020, its 13th charter anniversary.
As the province has been under the general community quarantine since May 20, Martinez said the city government has resumed full operations in order to ensure an unhampered delivery of public services to their constituents.
“My commendation to the selfless workers of the City government for heeding our request for [the] full resumption of operations — a clear manifestation of your service and love for the City of Bogo and its people,” Martinez said in his charter day message.
Bogo City presently has five confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease.
Considering how the city rose above previous challenges, including questions on its cityhood, Martinez said he is strongly confident that the city will “soar above the challenges of this COVID-19.”
“I can recall, being one of the lawyers who fought for our Cityhood, the tough experience we had in pursuing our dream of becoming a city. Years after, we were tormented with the strongest typhoon that wreaks havoc in our land. But in all those instances, we had shown our Bogohanon resiliency for we managed to pick up the pieces and rise strong anew,” said Martinez.
Read: ‘Cityhood of Naga, Carcar, Bogo final’
To recall, Bogo earned its cityhood on June 16, 2007, along with 15 other cities that year.
However, the League of Cities of the Philippines has questioned the status of the 16 new cities, raising that they did not meet the income requirement to become a city. After a series of rulings for and against their cityhood, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 16 cities in 2011.
At present, Bogo City, located some 96 kilometers north of Cebu City, is a third income class city that is home to around 15,000 households or over 78,000 residents. / dcb