City Hall at the SRP?

Of course, we all know what this is all about because this has been in the news recently. And it certainly is of such importance that people would be interested to know about it and how it plays out. After all, City Hall is the city’s center, it’s seat of government, where the city’s continuing welfare and future development are hatched and executed. And it’s not an ordinary happenstance that occurs every fortnight that people just dismiss and not talk about. Many people do, either in agreement or not.

Does it matter where City Hall is? People will have diverse opinions on this, and these probably are valid from each respective point of view. Let’s just review why it is there in the first place.

It’s mostly circumstantial and historical. Maybe nowadays, we can talk about ideal locations and make comparative analyses on them to determine the best one but back then centuries ago, the original city centers sprouted because of settlements. And settlements are determined by geography.

Our recorded history started with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, and his fight with Mayor Lapulapu of Mactan. Magellan was helped by Mayor Humabon of Cebu who apparently was at odds with Lapulapu at that time. That’s history, but today we have Cebu City, co-existing with Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City peacefully. And Cebu City Hall started where it is currently located, in the traditional Spanish triangular shape --the religious center (the basilica), the civil government center (City Hall), and the military fort (Fort San Pedro).

Except for the new settlements and cities in the country, this triangular configuration is common in all old, especially Spanish-era towns in the country. Anywhere within this triangle will be two more usual fixtures --the town plaza and the market. But that is simply because we developed as we had under Spanish rule. The newest towns and cities may be configured differently. And so it will be, when Cebu City Hall will be transferred to the SRP. You can no longer go to City Hall, Carbon, Santo Niño church, and Plaza Independencia/Fort San Pedro with one just ride.

The real question really is: do we really need to do this? Why? Why spend half-a-billion pesos to relocate a perfectly-working city government center to a new place which is not even as accessible as the present one?

It would have been proper if the financial and economic analyses were done --as all national government projects are required. Of course, you may say it’s the city’s money, but it’s not, it’s the people’s. And if the national government requires that diligent financial and economic analyses be done for its important projects, why shouldn’t the city government do the same? Which is actually a very easy thing to do, the City Engineering and City Planning and Development Offices can do that.

If the national government does that for due diligence, the city government should, too.