PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo will be in Cebu tomorrow to “reenact” the signing into law of the bill creating the lone district of Lapu-Lapu City.

She will also sign into law a bill transforming the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) into a university, 63 years after the school was founded in 1946.

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Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district), said the president will come to Cebu around 1:30 p.m. and sign Republic Act (RA) 9726 at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in front of Lapu-Lapu City officials.

Cuenco hopes to meet the President and discuss with her his interest in joining the foreign service, particularly in becoming ambassador to Italy.

The creation of Lapu-Lapu City as a lone congressional district drew mixed reactions from the administration and the opposition.

Mayor Arturo Radaza considered it a “milestone in the city’s journey to progress” and an “an opportunity to be heard in the national legislature.”

City officials said the swift passage of the law shows the administration recognizes Lapu-Lapu’s role in supporting the national economy.

Businessman and mayoral aspirant Efrain Pelaez Jr., on the other hand, suspected “connivance” in the splitting of the district, saying it was probably meant to accommodate some individual political interests.

Radaza has yet to decide if he will run to become the city’s first and Cebu’s ninth congressman, but two scions of political clans are reported to be eyeing the position.

Section I of RA 9726 stated that separation from the sixth district of “the lone legislative district of the City of Lapu-Lapu… shall commence in the next national election
after the effectivity of this Act.”

“The incumbent representative of the sixth legislative district of the Province of Cebu shall continue to represent the said district until the representative of the lone district of the City of Lapu-Lapu shall have been elected and qualified,” added Section II of the law.