Thursday, February 07, 2008 Villarete clarifies lapse, apologizes to Rama
THE Cebu City Council clarified yesterday that they did not sit on the approval of the Cebu City Strategic Master Plan, as what was earlier reported.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama asked the council to pass a resolution next week clarifying what happened to the plan and why it still has not been approved up to this time.
The master plan was drafted in 2001 yet but because there were kinks that have to be ironed out and various sectors had to be consulted on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the approval of the master plan was delayed.
The land use plan is one of the components of the master plan.
“I hope this is something that can be clarified through a resolution because it is being made to appear that the City Council caused the delay because we did not act on it. Anyway, (City Planning Officer) Paul Villarete already called me to apologize,” Rama told the council during their session yesterday.
Construction
Instead of constructing a flyover in Barangay Banilad, local businessmen asked that the City Government completes a master plan to find out if the flyover would address traffic congestion in the area.
Villarete said he did not blame the council for the delays, as reported by a local daily.
Villarete said he called the vice mayor to explain what happened to the master plan and what is being done to fast track its approval.
“I was interviewed but that is not how I said it. I said the draft of the Strategic Master Plan was submitted to the City Development Council (CDC), I did not say the Cebu City Council. That is why I had to apologize to the vice mayor and explain what I really said in the interview,” Villarete told Sun.Star Cebu.
The Cebu City Strategic Master Plan is a framework for the city’s development in the next 20 years, and does not include a list of projects that the City would undertake, he said.
It was already approved by the City Development Council and was supposed to be submitted to the City Council for adoption.
But because the master plan was based on data that were gathered between 1999 and 2001 yet, the CDC returned it to the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) for some changes, to make sure the data it will be based on are still accurate.
