Osmeña junks sisterhood pact offer

CEBU - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña turned down an offer made by officials of Qinzhou City, China on establishing sister-city relations with the City of Cebu, this according to city public information officer Nagiel Banacia.

Banacia said that Osmeña maintains his policy on keeping only one sister city per country because his focus is to strengthen and develop the city’s relations with the existing sister cities of Cebu, rather than starting a new one.

It was learned that the officials of several cities in China have offered the friendship, cooperation and partnership through the sister-city relations, but Cebu City has already an existing sister-city relationship with Xiamen City.

However, the mayor has referred this offer of Qinzhou City to other cities in the Philippines that might be interested in such.

Qinzhou City is located along the coast in the south of Guangxi, facing Beibu Gulf and bordering Vietnam on the southwest.

The Chinese city is part of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and has a population of 3,260,000 and with a land area of 10,278 kilometers or 1/3 of the size of Cebu City.

The officials of that Chinese city have even invited Osmeña and other city officials to be part of the Cebu delegation of businessmen who are scheduled to visit their country for the China-Asean Exposition to be held in Nanning, Guangxi on October 22 to 25.

Councilor Arsenio Pacana, chairman of the City Council committee on tourism, cultural communities and historical affairs, said it would be best to refer the offer of Qinzhou City officials to other cities in the Philippines and to give them the opportunity to establish sister-city relations with that Chinese city. – Rene U. Borromeo/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)