Cebu officials sympathize with plight of nearby provinces

Cebu officials sympathized with officials of neighboring provinces who said that Cebu always gets big projects while they are getting left behind.

But Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said Cebu should not be blamed for having so many infrastructure projects and gets prioritized in the implementation of projects because "we are the best in the Philippines in grabbing projects."

Cebu 1st district Rep. Eduardo Gullas said he cannot say if Cebu is really favored, but if true he would feel bad because this should not happen.

However, he said this is not the first time the issue on Cebu being favored was raised because he encountered the same issue during his stint as the Regional Development Council chairman from 1976 to 1986 when he was governor of Cebu.

Both Osmeña and Gullas were reacting to the statement of Siquijor Governor Rolando Fua and Dumaguete City Mayor Agustin Perdices who said that Cebu always get big projects while their places are being left behind.

Osmeña admitted that Cebu is becoming like imperial Manila.

"It's true that we emerge to become Imperial Cebu and I really pity them. But what can we do?" Osmeña said. With this, he advised his fellow local officials in neighboring provinces to be more aggressive in fast tracking their projects rather than complain.

He said when he first became mayor in 1988 he also envied Manila because it got so much attention from the government.

"If you keep on complaining you cannot go anywhere. You have to follow it up," Osmeña said, adding that he has been helping some provinces and cities to get projects but it ended up in useless since they are not making follow-ups.

Gullas said that to keep away from the issue during his time as RDC chairman he made sure that the projects were for all four provincial governors and nine city mayors.

"Gipaninguha nako nga maka-share gyud ang tanan so if you examine the CVRP (Central Visayas Regional Project), the CVRP is really a regional project. The urban component includes the city of Tagbilaran and the city of Dumaguete and the rural component includes all the municipalities including the six municipalities of Siquijor," he explained.

To do it, Gullas said that for the first time in RDC's history, he brought the council to the four provinces and the nine cities of the region and wherever the RDC meets, the governor of the province or the mayor of that city would preside the meeting.

He said that the local and national planners have to coordinate which project to prioritize and always listen to the concerns of the local government officials.

The complaints of Percides and Fua were raised during the RDC's fourth-quarter meeting, attended by heads of national line agencies, local officials, and private sector representatives from the region. -Garry B. Lao and Wenna A. Berondo