ROAD concreting and the improvement of the healthcare system are among the programs that will be prioritized by reelected Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
The programs lined up for the governor’s fifth term in office include road concreting projects, enhancement in the delivery of services to the health and education sectors, and the pursuance of sustainable programs that the Province organized at the height of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
Garcia said the road concreting works in the province that were suspended during the campaign period would now be continued.
“Our road concreting projects will go on with less than 100 kilometers for our provincial roads and barangay roads,” Garcia told reporters on Monday, May 16, 2022.
Solar street lights will also be installed on the roads, especially farm-to-market roads, to ease the delivery of goods from the mountain barangays to the town proper and to other parts of Cebu Island.
Garcia also vowed to upgrade the provincial hospitals by providing additional beds and other hospital equipment, including ambulances and hiring additional healthcare workers.
The application for upgrading of provincial hospitals in the cities of Danao and Bogo in northern Cebu has already been submitted by the Capitol to the Department of Health (DOH).
“We already have pending applications before the DOH... This will allow us to put in more specialists, and doctors, and we can now increase our bed capacity, doctors, and upgraded medical equipment will be made available to our hospitals,” the governor said.
Education, livelihood
In line with its education program, the Capitol will also distribute school supplies to the schoolchildren during the start of face-to-face (F2F) classes.
It will also continue supporting the skills training program of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and its sustainable programs like Sugbusog and Sugbo Negosyo that were created by the Provincial Government to help its constituents recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Garcia also plans to bring back the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo festival tour to Cebu towns that had been halted for two years because of the pandemic.
Garcia considers tourism as one of the economic drivers of the province.
She thanked the Cebuanos for giving her another three-year mandate to serve Cebu.
“Over 1.4 million Cebuanos gave their vote of confidence, agreeing with the policies that I had laid down during the pandemic even though there were a few noisy critics that seemed to dominate social media,” Garcia said.
“But after all, the silent huge majority of Cebuanos agreed with how we handled the pandemic. And then Typhoon Odette happened. And again, the huge silent majority agreed with how we had faced the myriad challenges,” she added.
Garcia got more than 1,478,436 million votes, while her challenger, former tourism secretary Ace Durano, garnered 341,455 votes during the May 9 elections.