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Monday, May 22, 2006
Ledesma: CDO better than Davao City?
By Jun Ledesma
Sunbursts
PANGIL Bay is calm even as typhoon Caloy was battering Visayas and Luzon. If the sea is calm, so is the prevailing peace and order condition in Lanao del Norte towns.
In my previous travels in these parts, the towns of Tubod, Kolambogan, Maigo, Bacolod and Kauswagan looked like ghost towns. These days, private vehicles and passenger buses travel here day and night.
Many displaced families during the armed conflicts in the area have been resettled by the government with the aid of the United Nations Development Program (for Internally Displaced Peoples) and have resumed farming and other economic activity.
Iligan City being near to these towns is presently bustling with activity. The landscape changed with the prospects of peace accord in sight. Even the Union cement logo has been changed by Holsim although engine of the National Steel Corporation is still idle to date despite the promise and hope for its resuscitation.
I brought the kids to Maria Cristina Falls. The majestic waterfalls never fail to impress guests who are received congenially by the NPC personnel manning Agus 6 and 7. The kids were given a quick education how water runs a generator, which in turn provide electric power to nearly all of Mindanao.
Cagayan de Oro City or for that matter Northern Mindanao, beats the south in gross products. That is why maybe the malls here seem to be growing bigger and with more shoppers than Davao. Even the hotels are more expensive than Davao City's despite the fact that they pale in comparison when it comes to amenities, function rooms and accessibility to mountain and beach resorts.
Right now Cagayan de Oro is in a monstrous traffic gridlock owing to the repairs of Carmen Bridge. The work is at snails pace and nobody seemed to mind. City Hall authorities, despite the fact that their offices are just at the foot of the bridge, are not even angry the workers are using crude equipment to do the repairs. In four occasions that I crossed the one-way bridge I only counted four people working while the rest are sitting on the ledge leisurely smoking cigarettes and gossiping.
There's a new hotel, Mallberry Hotel, that's right beside Robinson's that is setting a new trend in Cagayan de Oro. It was fully booked when we got there.
Right now part of the hotel is still under construction. It's going to be the prime destination in this city.
In Butuan, they have what they dub as resort hotel right in the heart of the city. Probably meant to justify the expensive rates. But Dotties Place is excellent. Big rooms with a swimming pool just right across your room, is a big come-on. Progress on the reconstruction of the Maharlika Highway is on high gear in some, but very slow in others. But there has been a big improvement since I last travel there about two months ago.
The Bayugan-San Francisco stretch is almost completely cemented. They are now working on SF-Rosario. The Daewo Construction has finished concreting the Trento portion while they are about to pour cement to the remaining unpaved link towards Rosario. If President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shows herself more often in Agusan, you can be sure that before Christmas Day Butuan and Surigao City will just be less than 3 hours away. I will be remiss though if I will not give credit to Secretary Jesus Dureza for the peace that is prevailing in Cotabato and Lanao and for the progress and faster pace of infrastructure development in Mindanao.
Back home we all agreed there's nothing like Davao City where we can live in peace and quiet knowing fully well that our city mayor, Rodrigo Durterte, is awake while the rest of us are in deep slumber.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 22, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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