City heads tackle issues

CEBU, Philippines - Long term solutions are being threshed out on issues on transportation, garbage collection, quality education, environment, and water and air pollution, among others during the symposium of urbanization of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Senior Officials’ Meeting in Cebu.

Over 20 city executives attended the symposium held on September 3 and 4, said APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting Chairwoman Laura del Rosario, also the Undersecretary of Department of Foreign Affairs, in a press briefing yesterday.

“We invited more than 20 mayors and they discussed the challenges that affect a local city executive and, of course, these are part of the things that we do in APEC. We talk about waste, treatment of waste, conversion of waste into something good,” Del Rosario said, without disclosing specifics.

Mayor Michael Rama was represented by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella during the forum since the ma-yor is in Indonesia for a speaking engagement, also regarding urbanization.

“Everything that we do, of course, is basically for the average person, for the average citizen. And I think this will go into what we call the quality of growth of each economy,” Del Rosario said.

She said the city executives present during the symposium shared their best practices in achieving a livable city.

Labella said he was able to get information on good governance, environmental issues, and on better management of waste, among others.

“They also tackled the issue on transportation. To address the problem on transportation, a city should adopt a mass transport system. For Cebu City, I think Bus Rapid Transit is the answer,” he said.

He said he will relay the information to Rama.

Del Rosario said the city executives were encouraged to involve private institutions in improving the city through public-private partnership.— Jean Marvette A. Demecillo/JMO (FREEMAN)