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Friday, August 31, 2007
Woes 'may wipe Lapu off map'
* Ephraim Pelaez, president of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) in a forum on good governance officials of Lapu-Lapu City to act on the city's problems
* Pelaez says the City cannot be a tourism magnet if the task is left solely to the private sector
* Business group, Pelaez says, has resorted to "affirmative action" but it has not been as successful as it wants it to be
CEBU CITY -- If these persist, the problems of garbage, squatting and corruption will put an end to Mactan Island's success as a tourist destination, a business leader warned in a forum.
Ephraim Pelaez, Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) president, said resort owners are already starting to feel the impact.
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In a good governance forum at the University of Cebu last Wednesday, he urged local government officials to act, saying the island cannot remain a tourism magnet if initiatives are left solely to the private sector.
But Lapu-Lapu City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez, in a separate interview, said keeping the city clean and garbage-free is not an "all-government affair."
"The City cannot do it alone. The people can do their part by carrying out waste segregation. We have dumping points along barangay roads. All they have to is bring the garbage to these sites. Garbage collection cannot be a house-to-house affair," Ybañez said.
"We intend to implement the law (Solid Waste Management Act) and ordinances. Our efforts include meeting with stakeholders, barangay chiefs and collectors," he said.
The MICCI has resorted to "affirmative action" to push the local government unit of Lapu-Lapu City into doing something, but Pelaez said they "haven't been as successful as they would have wanted to be."
The business group took out one-page advertisements in local newspapers showing photographs of garbage piles in each of Lapu-Lapu's barangays.
Ybañez said City Hall has kept its doors open to Pelaez's group. But until now, the businessman has yet to talk or meet with City Government officials, he added.
"He (Pelaez) is trying to destroy Mayor Arturo Radaza and the city itself. His move is counter-productive. We don't want to engage in a media war. We are ready to talk to him. But he has not come to us yet," the city administrator told Sun.Star Cebu.
In the same forum last Wednesday, Pelaez said the growth of tourism in Mactan has been purely because of the private sector.
"There is no government infrastructure for tourism there. There isn't even a government information desk," he said. "It was only because we hosted the Asean Summit that Mactan got a few kilometers of asphalt. After (the summit), it was back to reality."
Pelaez said they've also tried to raise public awareness on the problem of squatting by showing in some public venues www.googlearth.com satellite photographs of "squatter colonies."
In reaction, Ybañez said, "There are a lot of squatters. Look at Cebu, Mandaue or those in Luzon. Why single out Lapu-Lapu?"
"That's the reality of the economic condition of the whole country, not just Lapu-Lapu," he said.
Ybañez said the City Government also plans to develop the areas under the two Mactan bridges into an "ocean town."
Squatting, Pelaez said, can be resolved by preventing existing colonies from further expanding and resettling them in places from the main tourism sector.
"The government has lost a lot of money in anomalous transactions. The amount would have gone a long way into resettlement," he said, adding that one of those P85,000 Asean lampposts is enough to build one home with Gawad Kalinga.
The MICCI, he said, managed to secure accreditation from the anti-graft office as a Corruption Prevention Unit so they could monitor government transactions at City Hall, in an attempt to ensure public service.
"We are often given the runaround," Pelaez lamented.
He cited as example a letter they sent City Hall asking for copies of certain documents, in response to a survey showing how some businessmen allegedly have to pay certain officials to get a business permit.
"We get a letter telling us to get the document from somewhere else because it already got turned over. And when we contacted that agency, we were told that no such document has been turned over," Pelaez said.
In one instance, Lapu-Lapu City Attorney Joseph Vincent Lim wrote the MICCI back and reportedly asked it to show proof that it is a legitimate corruption prevention unit accredited by the anti-graft office.
But Ybañez said corruption is present not just in the government but also in the private sector. He said Pelaez should also look at himself before criticizing the City Government.
"Take the case of Pelaez's Marina Mall, look if the garbage there is segregated. As for Marina Mall Holdings, would you believe its capitalization is only P700,000?" Ybañez said in a phone interview.
In an earlier interview, Mayor Radaza said he has nothing against the business group and that he appreciates their concern and effort.
"But each of us should have an open mind to willingly help each other," Radaza said. (KNR/CPG of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (August 31, 2007 issue)
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