Thursday, March 27, 2008 Espinoza: Argao, Cebu City and Capitol By Elias L. Espinoza Free Zone
I WAS enthralled recalling how Gov. Gwen Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña bragged over whose administration has more money.
Yet, if we go around the city, some roads are dilapidated and uncollected garbage litters the streets and sidewalks. In the province, some provincial roads are unpaved and a lawyer from Cabadiangan is complaining.
The Cebu City hospital, as well as the province’s district hospitals, begs for attention. These facilities, which take care of the life and health of residents, lack the needed supplies and medicines.
Cebu City and the Province are not business enterprises that their administrators would hoard money then brag about it. Taxpayers’ money should be returned to the people in the form of better services.
In Cebu City, some streets are unlighted. The death of a nursing student at the hands of robbers in a dark street is a reminder of the lackadaisical attitude of City Hall officials.
In contrast, look at the town of Argao. It has provided its residents and tourists with free Internet access by putting up a wi-fi (wireless fidelity) blanket in its plaza. We never heard town officials brag they have much money in their coffers.
Argao, which is 68 kilometers from Cebu City, is even ahead of Hong Kong in going wireless. Hong Kong officials only announced in December last year that they will make their place the first wireless city in Asia.
Through the help of the National Computer Center, Argao is leading the other towns in Cebu in Internet governance (IG).
Argao now allows its taxpayers to pay online to avoid the long queue.
I think Cebu City once announced that City Hall will soon be IT-capable. I admire Mayor Osmeña’s progressive thinking.
But is City Hall now IT capable? It’s a shame for a premier city that a town like Argao overtook it in information technology (IT) considering that several IT firms are based there.
IG is the development and application by governments, the private sector, and civil society, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.
I am currently enrolled in an online course on IG through the Internet Governance Capacity Building Program of the Diplo Foundation (http://www.diplomacy.edu/).
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Badian officials have, perhaps, forgotten the adage that, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”
After a Korean student died on Good Friday when he was hit by another Korean who jumped from the top of Kawasan falls in Badian, local officials are now talking about prohibiting diving there.
That was an expected reaction. The pattern is the same with other local government units. Most government officials, local or national, are only good at taking active response after an incident.
Tourists (particularly the adventurous ones) are always tempted to jump from the top of the falls. But Badian officials did not bother to put up restrictions to prevent loss of lives or avoid injuries to guests.
