German city eyes Iloilo as sister city

PREPARATIONS are underway for Iloilo to become a sister city of the State of Bavaria in southeastern Germany, with exchanges on information on technology, education, health, environment and other issues.

Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog is enthusiastic on the offer of the German couple who are residents of Aschaffenburg, Bavaria and good friends and partners of Bavaria Mayor Klaus Herzog.

A highly industrialized city, Bavaria is known as a center of clean solar technology and other heavy equipment and only home of BMW cars in the world.

Import, export consultant Heinz Dieter Bender and his wife Socorro Cansancio Bender paid a courtesy call at the city mayor’s office on Monday to exchange ideas on the proposed sisterhood agreement.

Mrs. Bender traced her roots to the Cansancio family in Leon, Iloilo and still maintains a family house in the Iloilo municipality. She was married to her German husband for the past 32 years, and the couple has three children working in Germany.

Bender and his wife are general manager and chief executive officer respectively of YelloBill 168 eK based in Germany, and they are involved in exports of solar electricity materials and heavy equipment.

At present, their main export is in Iraq with Sheik Khrebett as their main costumer of solar electricity equipment and materials.

Mabilog said he is interested to connect with a German city and Iloilo as the first Philippine city to have a sisterhood agreement with a Euro city. He said there are many Ilonggas married to Germans and raising their families in several cities of Germany.

Bender assured he will do everything to cement the sisterhood agreement before December this year. He said they live near the city hall of Aschaffenburg, Bavaria and the city mayor there is their personal family friend.