Lapid to Cebu execs: Start plan to decongest traffic

CEBU, Philippines - Senatorial candidate Mark Lapid believes that local officials should start working on the plans to decongest Cebu to avoid a similar traffic problem in Manila in the future.

Lapid said that the province is considered to be one of the best alternatives for investment amid the monstrous traffic problem in Metro Manila.

“Foreign investment and tourism are two of the major thrusts of the national government to further spur economic growth. We all know that Cebu has one of the major competitive cities in the country and in fact the tourism gateway here in the Visayas and Mindanao, so we can only expect a lot of investors and tourists to come here if we continue succeeding in these thrusts,” said Lapid.

Lapid was in Cebu yesterday to join in the 158th fiesta celebration of Alegria town. He said that the province needs infrastructure support being a gateway.

He said that direct foreign investment is being aggressively pushed by the Aquino administration and is actually one of the focal points of the platform of government of the Liberal Party’s standard bearer Mar Roxas.

He said the Aquino administration has been targeting 10 million tourist arrivals since the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” tourism campaign was launched.

“We all know the impact of traffic problems in our economy. It keeps foreign investors and foreign tourists away. And we don’t want that to happen here,” said Lapid

“I believe that there is already a dream plan presented by the business sector and other groups for Cebu and the people of Cebu can expect my full support on its legislative aspect if given the chance,” he added.

Lapid highlighted the importance of tourism in economic growth, especially for rising economy like the Philippines.

As an example, he said that some highly-developed countries happened to have the well-established tourism programs like the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom—all six landed in the list of most-visited countries by foreign tourists.

Each of the said countries, according to Lapid, has been earning  $36 billion to $56 billion a year from the money spent by foreign tourists—figures which are double or more than double of the OFW remittances and BPO revenues combined.

Last year, OFW remittances posted an all-time high of $24.3 billion while revenues from the BPO on the same year were pegged at $18.4 billion.

“I know the importance of tourism in economic development. This brings huge sum of money, this creates business, and this creates jobs. May malaking kinabukasan sa turismo, dahil sa turismo may trabaho,” he said in a statement.

 Lapid, the youngest senatorial candidate and currently the head of Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, said Cebu has always been close to their heart.

In fact, his father, Senator Lito Lapid, played the role of Lapu-Lapu in the 2002 film which earned him the best actor award from the Film Academy of the Philippines.  — (FREEMAN)