THE Cebu International Port, or Pier 6, will have to be transferred outside Cebu City, in line with the plan of the Cebu City Government to develop its waterfront area, which includes the establishment of a creative district that is seen to generate 100,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of pesos in revenues.
The 14-hectare port area will be transformed into a place which will accommodate international tourists who will arrive on cruise ships to Cebu.
But Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia, in an interview Sunday, June 4, 2023, said this would still take a long time since such move would mean an amendment of Republic Act 7621 or the Cebu Port Authority Charter, which stipulates that CPA is the one mandated to manage, operate, maintain and develop ports and port facilities in the entire province.
In a privilege speech delivered during the regular session of the Cebu City Council on May 17, 2023, Garcia said the City will have to recover the portion of the coastline that the CPA is occupying so the City’s plan to develop the waterfront area will be realized.
“We will transform that port area into a place where we can welcome international tourists to the City of Cebu. Mao na nga papahawaon na nato ang CPA diha (That’s why we have to push out the CPA from there),” said Garcia in his speech.
Garcia said domestic ports (Piers 1 to 5) may remain, but ports where large trucks carrying container vans going to and from the area should be transferred to decongest traffic in the metro.
As to the operation of the ports which the City envisions to accommodate international cruise ships, he said CPA would still play a role, especially on the operations, adding he is after the transfer of the portions of the ports that are not accommodating passenger ships.
SunStar Cebu tried to get the comment of the CPA on the City’s plans, but the latter opted not to give a statement yet.
Garcia though said the City can start establishing the creative district even if ports will not be transferred yet, adding they are eyeing Block 27 in the North Reclamation Area, where the Cebu City Quarantine Center is located, as the first area to be developed into a creative district.
Fix seaports first
A tourism player weighed in on the matter, however.
While he lauded the plans of the Cebu City Government to develop the city’s waterfront area to attract the international cruise ship market, Alfred Reyes, president of the Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC), reiterated the call to fix first the seaport terminals that are extensively used by the domestic tourists.
“We don’t have a good seaport terminal yet to serve the inter-island tourism market. We need to fix that first,” said Reyes Monday, June 5.
Improvement of seaport terminals in Cebu is one of the items on HRRAC’s wish list under the Marcos administration.
“When tourists arrive in Cebu, they also visit other neighboring islands, but we don’t have a good seaport terminal, unlike in Indonesia or Vietnam,” Reyes said in a previous interview.
On the waterfront
The creative district is part of the waterfront development plan of the City. It will serve as hub for a performing arts center, game development, animation, and film post-production housing game developers, animators and creators, among others.
Other growth areas which are part of the waterfront development plan are the heritage district and business district.
For the creation of the creative district, Garcia said it has to start with a summit, which will be in February, to bring in resource speakers from various sectors and from other countries, to share their best practices. The summit also aims to bring in investors.
In 2015, then Department of Tourism Central Visayas Director Rowena Montecillo said Cebu wants to be included in the map of international cruise ships but that the problem was the port infrastructure.
“But the Cebu Port Authority is looking into that. They are looking at another place or another town very near Cebu City to transfer all of these cargo ships so that we can allow the Cebu International Port, or Pier 6 to really concentrate on cruise liners,” Montecillo said then.
She cited the international container port planned for construction in the northern town of Consolacion as a way to decongest the CIP in Cebu City.
Job generation
Making the Cebu IT Park in Barangay Lahug as basis, Garcia said he is looking at 100,000 jobs to be generated with the establishment of the creative district.
One of the inspirations of Garcia for pushing for the creation of such district is when an American TV series, “Almost Paradise,” was shot in Cebu. In a conversation with the executive producer, the vice mayor learned that about P500 million was spent in one episode of the series.
He said if more producers would come to Cebu, particularly Cebu City’s creative district, it would be an additional form of job generation, explaining that there will be employment of local actors, filmmakers, props men, as well as its effects on the restaurants, taxi drivers and malls, among others.
“The trickle-down effect is enormous if this particular creative district is realized,” said Garcia.
The next BGC
The South Road Properties (SRP) is envisioned to be the new business hub once the old business district in the city, or Colon Street, will be converted into a heritage district.
Considering its location, Garcia said the City will make SRP accessible to the public by building additional roads and creating routes going to and from SRP.
The transfer of City Hall to SRP and the completion of Pond A will signal the establishment of a business district in the SRP, while ensuring not to displace the fisherfolk community, said Garcia.
SRP currently houses some large infrastructure in the city, including two large malls, an integrated resort and casino facility, and the ongoing construction and engineering works of an arena.
“Just imagine doing the SRP will be the next Bonifacio Global City as we envision,” said Garcia. (WITH KOC)