Alvin vows to push IT dreams for Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City mayoralty candidate Alvin Garcia vowed to continue his initiatives to make Cebu the Silicon Valley in Asia, which he started in 2001 during his term as Cebu City mayor.        

In a roundtable discussion entitled Know Your Candidates initiated by The Freeman on Tuesday, he expressed his frustration on the lack of focus and support of the current local government on the development of the information technology sector in the city.

The former mayor initiated the “Cebu is IT (information technology)” slogan in 2001, during which the city was also chosen to be the venue of the very first international Information and Communications Technology Summit. 

The summit also gave birth to the Cebu Educational Development for Information Technology (Cedf-it) Foundation, a non-stock, non-profit private corporation composed of the industry, the academe, the government and non-government organizations.

“After seeing the potential of Cebu, my vision (then) was to make Cebu a small Bangalore. If they (present administration) went with my vision, Cebu now would have been ahead (of other IT centers in the country such as) Libis in Quezon City. A good project is a good project, it should be continued no matter who started it,” he said.

Garcia, who lost hold of Cebu City during the 2002 (?) local elections to Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the current administration has not given much support to the sector and to the initiatives and activities of the Cedf-it.

Bonifacio Belen, former executive director of Cedf-it, said in past interviews that Cedf-it, together with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), worked to transform Cebu into an ICT destination by initiating and organizing events like continuing ICT summits such as the Cebu ICT Summit in 2005, the Cebu ICT Strategy Summit of 2006, the Cebu ICT Summit of 2007 and the Philippine Open Source Summit of 2008.

Garcia said one of the projects that Mayor Osmena’s administration failed to support is the IT Teachers Academy, which offered faculty development and incentive programs to teachers in the tertiary level to upgrade the quality of IT instructors among Cedf-it’s members.

The academy was opened at the University of Cebu, Talamban Campus in 2002, but stopped operating only a few years ago. Cedf-it paid UC a minimal rent for the use of space and its facilities.

In an interview, Wilfredo “Jun” Sa-a, Cedf-it’s new executive director said the academy closed because the training programs for the teachers were already done.

“Cedf-it was able to implement and provide the trainings (even during Mayor Osmena’s time). Cedf-it is still able to enjoy the support of the Cebu City government. We were not abandoned,” he told The Freeman.

Sa-a, however, said Cedf-it is currently talking and linking with the City’s IT committee for the support it can give to Cedf-it.

In October 2008, Tholons Global Services, a full service strategic advisory firm for global outsourcing and investment ranked Cebu as the number one city among 50 emerging outsourcing cities of the world. —Jessica B. Natad