Monday, May 05, 2008 Mayor Osmeña to go to Hawaii, cancels visit to Yeosu, South Korea
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has decided not to go to Yeosu City in South Korea, opting to go to Hawaii next week.
Osmeña got an invitation to visit Yeosu this week to strengthen the City Government’s sister city ties with its government.
But the mayor said he would not be going because city officials have been there on numerous occasions already.
He opted to go to Honolulu, Hawaii on May 10 to attend a Filipino festival and look at designs of certain projects that can be replicated here.
Osmeña will be out of the country from May 8 to 13 in an official trip that he will be paying for himself.
“I’ll also be looking at some waste-to-energy facilities there after the festival that the Filipino community is organizing,” he told reporters last Friday.
<>Expenses
The mayor said he prefers to shoulder his own travel expenses so he won’t have to deal with the bureaucracy in getting several clearances.
Five other city officials are currently in the Netherlands to discuss other areas of cooperation with the local government there.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama, Councilors Christopher Alix, Edgardo Labella, Arsenio Pacaña and Augustus Pe Jr. left last week and are expected to be back on Wednesday.
CCMC operations
Among other sites, they visited sanitary landfill and waste management projects in Harlemmermeer, a sister city of Cebu City.
They also discussed the Harlemmermeer Government’s funding for certain operations of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
In a news conference, Osmeña said he leaves it to the City Council members to decide which foreign trips they should make, and which trips they should decline from.
“It’s about time these people went there. They will enjoy, I’m sure. Harlemmermeer officials come here three times a year and our vice mayor has never been there. It’s in our interest that we have some bonding with their city officials,” he said.
For more than 10 years already, Harlemmermeer’s government and private sector have actively assisted the CCMC, the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation, and several Cebu City schools and institutions, specifically in the area of training and education. (LCR)
