THE Cebu North Bus Terminal in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City will have to be relocated this year after Mayor Jonas Cortes bared his decision not to renew the lease contract with the Cebu City Government, which operates the facility.
Cortes plans to build a police station, a fire station, a barangay hall and other facilities on the Mandaue City-owned lot where the terminal stands.
The contract will expire in October.
Cortes said Subangdaku, one of the largest barangays in Mandaue City, does not have a proper barangay hall, while its police station sits on a property not owned by the City.
The mayor hopes that responses to emergencies will be quicker with the police station and fire station in one place.
North bus terminal manager Zosimo Jumao-as still has no idea where they’ll be moving. That decision will depend on the Cebu City and Provincial Governments.
During the time of former governor and now Vice Gov. Hilario Davide III, a feasibility study on having one terminal for both south and north buses was conducted.
The plan was to build the facility on a lot across the Cebu Port Authority in Cebu City.
Jumao-as said the matter still has to be discussed with members of the Provincial Board either this month or next month.
Some 300 buses use the north bus terminal every day. Around 6,000 passengers pass through it on regular days. The number, though, spikes to 20,000 passengers during holidays.
Under the lease contract, Cebu City pays an annual rent of P2 million to Mandaue City.
The terminal is managed by a cooperative run by bus operators and drivers.
The construction of the north bus terminal was one of the requirements of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) before it granted Mandaue City a loan in 1995.
Since Mandaue was not interested in operating a terminal at the time, its officials agreed to allow the Cebu City Government to lease the property and operate the facility instead. (KFD)