Consolacion Mayor Alegado: Seafront City reclamation project will continue despite opposition

Mayor Joannes “Joyjoy” Alegado of Consolacion town says he will continue with the seafront city reclamation project during his State of the Town Address today, Oct. 25. | Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Local Government of Consolacion will continue no matter what with the controversial Seafront City reclamation project in Barangay Tayud.

Incumbent Consolacion Mayor Joannes “Joyjoy” Alegado who delivered his last State of the Town Address (SOTA) on Tuesday, October 25, 2021, said his administration would proceed with the project despite opposition from different groups because the project would be a very big help not just for Consolacion but also to the entire Cebu Island.

He said this would be one of the projects that he would focus on in his remaining months as the town mayor. 

Alegado said that this project would be implemented with the New Cebu International Container Port (CICP) in Tayud, Consolacion. 

The Mayor said the earliest time for the CICP to be implemented would be next year while the reclamation project would take years to become a reality.

Alegado said they were already in the application phase and they were dealing with the government agencies and different stakeholders. 

“We are not asking them (opposition groups) to leave Consolacion right immediately, they still have time to look for the proper places and have the transisiton properly done and we are just thankful and grateful to them for the presence for the last 30, 40 years or so but then we couldn’t stop progress and development as well,” he said.

“We want another face of Consolacion. We want more. If there are jobs right now at the shipyards, this could be doubled or even tripled or even more than when the reclamation comes, so that’s for sure, it will create more jobs not just ship building and ship repair, but it would ripple for a lot of job opportunities,” said Alegado.

Vice Mayor Teresa “Nene” Alegado, in an interview, said if she would win again as Consolacion town mayor in the upcoming 2022 elections, she would continue his son’s projects specifically, the seafront project. 

Joyjoy Alegado will be running as the second nominee of Ako Bisaya Partylist in the upcoming 2022 elections.

Meanwhile, Mayor Alegado said that some of his biggest achievements in his almost three years as a mayor were the COVID-19 response, basic social services, infrastructure among others.

He said that they had showed resilience in handling the pandemic as they had tapped every sector in the community before implementing its COVID-19 efforts. 

He said that his administration had expanded the health services program of the town.

Currently, Alegado said they doubled their efforts in the vaccination program to reach herd immunity. 

Moreover, Alegado said they had also improved their basic social services such as registering the birth and the marriages of residents in Consolacion by going to the 21 barangays through the Local Civil Registry. 

He said they had provided assistance in a form of livelihood to many residents who were displaced and lost their jobs because of the pandemic

Alegado said they had also launched the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged Workers (Tupad) of the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) which benefitted more than a thousand residents. 

Alegado added that they also created programs and projects for the protection, rehabilitation, and preservation of the environment, also innovate agriculture programs.

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