Consolacion: Team Uswag promises solutions to traffic woes

Team Uswag led by Engr. Mike Mercado (center) address reporters during a press conference on Friday, April 25.|

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — Team Uswag, led by Engr. Mike Mercado, is challenging the bigger and more established political parties in Consolacion, Cebu to offer solutions to some of their town’s long-standing problems.

Mercado, an incumbent councilor in Brgy. Pulpogan, is running for mayor with a focus on progress and the delivery of better public services. His campaign platform include plans to fix traffic, improve healthcare, and support education.

Consolacion is known as the gateway to northern Cebu, and traffic has been a daily struggle in the locality for years.

READ: Lamp posts on highway median in Consolacion raise safety concerns

To help ease congestion problems, Mercado is proposing to widen roads, install CCTV cameras for traffic monitoring, and hire more traffic enforcers who are properly trained. He also plans to work closely with nearby towns and cities to make travel smoother and reduce bottlenecks.

Healthcare is another top priority for Mercado. If elected, he promises to build a public hospital to make healthcare more accessible.

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Mercado pointed out that despite being the richest municipality in Cebu Province, Consolacion still does not have its own public hospital. He observed that many of its residents continue to go to the Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital in Mandaue City for medical treatment.

Scholarship program

In education, Mercado is pushing for the implementation of a “wider scholarship program” to help deserving students. He also plans to expand school facilities to keep up with the town’s growing number of learners.

READ: USA Consolacion PDP Laban slate vows to address traffic woes

In Pulpogan, for example, he said that he already started helping students by giving them free printing services for their school documents and projects for more than a year now.

Mercado also wants to build world-class sports facilities for the youth, develop a public plaza for the community, and expand benefits and services for the senior citizens.

Mercado, who is running under Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, will be competing against three other mayoral candidates: incumbent Mayor Teresa “Nene” Alegado of Team Alagad (Lakas-CMD), Blessilda “Bingol” Villo of Team USA Consolacion (PDP-Laban), and Raul Isoto (Promdi Party).