THE Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for 2020 highlights the need to address traffic, public housing and improvement of the Carbon Public Market Units 2 and 3.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019, the Cebu City Development Council (CCDC) approved the P15 billion for next year’s AIP.

The executive department will use the AIP as basis to finalize the City’s annual budget next year.

“The priority projects of the mayor, I believe, are still the same that will be included in the budget,” said City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, chairman of the committee on budget and finance.

The City has already allocated P250 million to upgrade the traffic system from the P2.5 billion second supplemental budget.

The Cebu City Transportation Office had requested P500 million to replace the 30-year old Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System.

Although SM Supermarket has proposed to transform the Carbon Public Market into a modern market, Garcia said they still included the budget for the market’s refurbishment in the AIP.

Housing is also a top priority of the AIP as it is the aim of Mayor Edgardo Labella to to have “zero squatters in the city,” said Garcia.

The councilor said the City will construct two to three more medium-rise buildings to house displaced informal settlers living along the riverside. JJL