EDITORIAL – Tiny Mandaue outsprinting Cebu City

Probably because more than half of the Philippine population anywhere is below 25 years old, many in Cebu are taking for granted that the City of Mandaue has always been the "boomtown" that they know it to be. That is how they saw it when they first saw the light.

But Mandaue City was not always that way. Just 40 short years ago, it was not uncommon to see farmers on carabaos plodding along what were then the town's few streets. In the 1960s, there were still tartanillas plying the Mandaue-Cebu City route.

Go ahead, laugh, but the jeepney fare to Cebu City was 10 centavos. And that was stiff for some, hence the tartanillas, which charge five. With no malls or something remotely similar, the biggest bang was "halo-halo sa mercado, tag-diyes, leche con hielo, tag-singko."

Then, in the late 1960s, big business saw the potential of Mandaue. Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corporation established one of its biggest complexes in the country there. That started the ball rolling. By 1969, Mandaue exploded on the big league stage, debuting as a city.

The attractiveness of Mandaue City to investors and prospective residents alike stems from a combination of ideal location, relative security, sound economic policies, reliable public service and good governance. Then there are the Mandauehanons. Honest, industrious, God-fearing.

All these combined to push Mandaue City's economic growth to two times faster (12%) than that of the entire country (6%). No wonder this is so --- just look at how fast the city can process business permits ... in just an amazing 10 minutes.

Almost everything nice that can be said of a locality can now probably be said of Mandaue City. Yet, when the Cebu International Convention Center was envisioned to be constructed at the Mandaue City side of the north reclamation area, it came on like the icing on the cake.

The CICC, to be constructed by the Province of Cebu on a 3.8 hectare lot donated by the city, is being rushed to serve as main venue of the upcoming Asean Summit in December. After that it will go on to serve as a further catalyst for "one small town's amazing growth."

Mayor Thadeo Ouano has every reason to be proud of his city. It is beating its bigger and older neighbor to the south, Cebu City, in almost every category of economic growth, social development, and political governance. And it is doing it with far less humbug and hubris.