GOV. Hilario Davide III urged the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB) to focus development initiatives on the rest of the towns and cities in the province.
He also wants them to give recommendations on how to develop these areas.
“We don’t want these outlying towns to become ‘bedroom communities’ as it is happening in the suburbs of Metro Manila,” he told Jica study team (JST) during their presentation of the interim report to the MCDCB last Aug. 13.
Davide said he wants to ensure that there will be economic opportunities in these outlaying towns. He doesn’t want them to become a quick and convenient access between rural and urban centers.
Jica hired Japanese consultants and Filipino experts to come up with “Mega Cebu Vision,” a development framework for 13 local government units’ (LGUs) roadmap.
Cebu 2050
The MCDCB plan for Cebu 2050 is a development framework to make the 13 LGUs from Carcar City to Danao City “a better place for business, a more livable place for us who live here and for those visiting Cebu,” he said.
The JST report tackled, among others, land use and structures, roads, transport, water supply and solid waste management.
But the governor’s idea of development, he said in his speech, is development for the whole, without the classification of urban or rural.
“I think it would be unfair to ask the rural areas to give up valuable arable land to accommodate solid waste from the city. Or to access their valuable resources like water for consumption in the city. Or pollute the air with coal plant or cement factory just to provide power and construction materials for consumption in the city,” Davide said.
Consolacion and the City of Naga, according to the JST report, have private waste disposal sites that accommodate other LGUs’ solid wastes.
Water sources
Consolacion’s Asian Energy Sanitary Landfill accommodates Cebu City’s garbage, while FDR Con Sanitary Landfill in the City of Naga accommodates Lapu-Lapu City’s garbage.
The report also identified surface water source potentials, namely dams in Mananga, Kotkot, Lusaran and Malubog and the Luyang River in Carmen, which is being jointly developed by the Capitol and a private partner.
The report also identified the Danao River as a potential source of surface water, capable of producing 20,000 cubic meters of water daily.
The governor said he believes an urban center is more livable if development is spread outside.
He said life in outlaying towns will be better if workers won’t have to commute to and from the city every morning.
“How do we accomplish this? This is the recommendation I am looking for,” Davide told Jica and the board.