Labella: Cebu City a work in progress

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is a work in progress and the city government needs the people’s help in making this happen.

This was the message of Mayor Edgardo Labella for the 84th Charter Day celebration of the city on February 24, 2021, in a virtual celebration.

Labella said that the city has suffered through a pandemic in the past year yet managed to emerge from it “stronger” and determined to bring back the economy.

“We have come a long way. Cebu City continues to be a work in progress. We all know that the past year had been a very challenging one. Our momentum was interrupted by a global pandemic never before seen in our lifetimes,” said the mayor.

He said the city government focused on the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response pushing aside all other projects the administration has planned.

Instead, the past year showed the “resiliency” of the Cebuanos, which deserved to be celebrated this Charter Day, Labella said.

Labella presented the achievements of his administration including the building of the Cebu City Quarantine Center (CCQC) and the NOAH Complex as isolation centers for the COVID-19 patients.

He also proudly presented the new building of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), which after five years, has finally opened the first three floors for outpatients.

“We are excited to develop it into a state-of-the-art hospital,” said the mayor.

The city government has also provided aid to the medical frontliners including the P30,000 allowance for private nurses and medical workers so that their earnings may be at par with their government counterparts at least for three months.

Despite the rise of cases in the city, which has reached over 3,000 active ones since the start of 2021, Labella said the facilities of the city have managed to control the situation.

Moving forward, Labella said the city has launched the Ed Radio that would use the airwaves to deliver lessons to students around the city so that they can be guided through learning their modules.

Soon, the city will partner with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for wifi in the barangays that students can use for their online classes.

For traffic, Labella said that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project may be closer to reality with the promise of partial operation at the end of 2021 and full operation in 2023. The pandemic has provided the city a chance to transition from the traditional jeepneys to interim buses.

After 30 years, the analog traffic system has been replaced with a smart digital traffic system as well, adding timers and cameras to traffic lights around the city and a faster way to customize the traffic lights depending on the traffic situation.

The traffic lights of at least 18 intersections have already been replaced.

As for infrastructure, Labella presented the ongoing developments at the South Road Properties including a 16,000 seating capacity convention center dome, several mixed-used projects by Filinvest and the UHRI.

The Cebu Cordova Link Expressway is nearing completion at 59.9 percent construction progress, while the Carbon modernization project is set to commence in March 2021.

As the city awaits the vaccines for the COVID-19 in order finally begin moving on from the pandemic, Labella is now looking forward to projects that would focus on housing, education, and infrastructure.

He hopes that the people will continue to support and cooperate with the city government for the city to keep growing in the next year. /rcg