CEBU has remained the country’s richest province, with its net assets reaching P309 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, posting a significant increase of P74 billion from last year.
This was revealed by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in her State of the Province Address (Sopa) on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, at the Cebu Provincial Capitol Social Hall.
In her speech, she stressed that despite the decline of P500 million from the national tax allocation in 2023, the province was able to boost its local tax collection efforts.
The Province achieved a revenue increase of around P1.1 billion with the collection of fees and charges increasing 77 percent from last year to a total of P181.9 billion.
In terms of locally sourced revenues, Garcia said that there was an increase of 12.72 percent, or almost P2 billion.
With a strong financial portfolio and streamlining financial transparency and accountability in the areas of management, disbursement, and utilization of public funds, the province was awarded the Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping by the Department of the Interior and Local Government in January 2024, she said.
Infrastructure
Garcia said that the province is poised to complete a total length of 890 kilometers of provincial road concreting projects, while it has another 219 kilometers of barangay roads concreted from a total length of 264.26 kilometers.
The province has also installed 7,858 solar lights atop concrete lamppost pedestals along 196.45 kilometers of barangay roads and installed 3,129 more for another 78.225 kilometers of barangay roads, as well as 8,517 solar lights for 212.925 kilometers of provincial roads.
She added that 19 of the total 21 bridge projects were also completed in the different local government units: in the City of Carcar, Boljoon, Argao, Barili, Asturias, Tuburan, in the Camotes Group of Islands, Daanbantayan, Ginatian and Mandaue City, for P200 million.
The province is also completing 47 barangay halls, 64 multi-purpose covered courts, 13 school buildings and facilities, 12 daycare centers, eight hospital buildings and facilities, as well as heritage parks and houses, slaughterhouses, public markets, restrooms, and other buildings and facilities.
On bulk water supply, Garcia said that there are ongoing and completed bulk water projects in 12 municipalities with an accumulated cost of P2 billion and are projected to serve over 60,000 households in Santander, Argao, San Fernando, Boljoon, Oslob, Samboan, Alcoy, Malabuyoc, Moalboal, and Barili.
Health
In her health program, Garcia said that various upgrades to the facilities of the existing provincial and district hospitals were pursued and implemented.
Last June, the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Balamban was granted Level 2 status, Garcia said, adding that it was the first among the Capitol-run hospitals to be accredited as such by the Department of Health (DOH).
The Bantayan District Hospital and the Ricardo L. Maningo Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, Camotes, have been upgraded to Level 1 status accreditation from the DOH.
The Carcar City Provincial Hospital was also upgraded with the opening of its six-storey hospital extension building, which is capable of holding 120 more beds, she added.
The province is also eyeing to convert the Minglanilla District Hospital from its infirmary classification into a Level II hospital by establishing it as a trauma center that will cater to patients suffering from significant traumatic injuries such as vehicular accidents or gunshot wounds — thereby reducing patient referrals to Cebu City hospitals.
Cebu, the biggest hemodialysis operator among the localities in the country, inaugurated hemodialysis centers in the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Danao, with 15 stations; in the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Carcar, with 17 stations; 10 stations in the Bantayan District Hospital; 10 stations in the Ricardo L. Maningo Memorial Hospital; and an additional 15 stations in the Cebu Provincial Hospital in Balamban, which already had 10 stations prior.
A total of 77 hemodialysis stations are now being operated in Capitol-run hospitals in partnership with the private sector.
Agriculture
Garcia aimed to improve the Sugbusog program in its fifth year, adding that the province has provided micro-financing to farmers and fisherfolk in partnership with the Landbank of the Philippines and the Cooperative Bank of Cebu through the Enhanced Countryside Development Program, which has likewise yielded even more beneficiaries.
For the first half of this year, 563 borrowers were granted around P55 million in loans by the Landbank and Coop Bank of Cebu, bringing them to a total of 2,686 borrowers and a total loan amount of P283.3 million since the program started in 2021.
Heritage
Garcia has urged anew the National Museum of the Philippines to fulfill its promise to return the four wooden pulpit panels to the Boljoon Church.
“As a result, they will soon be returned to Boljoon, preserving an integral and indispensable part of the Shrine of Patrocinio de Maria Santisima, a National Cultural Treasure,” Garcia said.
There is an issue of ownership of the four antique pulpit panels taken from the Boljoon Church that first came to public light early this year. The panels, which were reported stolen from Boljoon church’s pulpit in the 1980s and had been missing since then, were recently turned over to the national museum as “a gift to the nation.”
Garcia said that she strongly voiced out to the National Museum of the Philippines and held meetings with the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Andoni Aboitiz, calling for their return to Boljoon and the Boljoanons.
Garcia added that she also lobbied with the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority to increase the budget for the restoration and rehabilitation of another of Cebu’s historical treasures, the Nuestra Señora del Pilar Church in Sibonga, from an initial P15 million to P100.7 million.
International Collaboration
Among the attendees of Garcia’s Sopa were delegates from St. Petersburg, Russia, led by Vyacheslav Gennadyevich Kalganov, the Deputy Chairman for External Relations of St. Petersburg.
Garcia, in her speech, bannered the collaboration of the two regions in which the 19-member delegates are visiting Cebu for the International Economic Summit, which will be hosted by the Cebu Provincial Capitol from August 21 until August 23.
There will also be a collaboration with Russia’s leading cancer research and treatment facility, the Napalkov Cancer Center, to share best practices with the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
Solar Plant, Expressway
The province is also in talks for a solar power plant in Dumanjug in the south and Toledo City in the west, following a partnership agreement with Spanish infrastructure conglomerate Acciona for the development and operation of a 150-megawatt solar power plant in Daanbantayan.
Garcia said this was the first local government unit-led public-private partnership in solar power generation, not only to provide increased capacity to the island but also to generate for the Province of Cebu unprecedented revenues from leases, percentage shares in electricity sales, and brokerage fees.
She also eyed to extend the coverage of the Metro Cebu Expressway (MCE) down south, starting from Naga City, due to emerging traffic congestion in southern Cebu.
The project, formerly a priority project of the Department of Public Works and Highways, has been passed to the province’s helm.
Garcia is also mulling a partnership agreement with Spanish infrastructure conglomerate Acciona Philippines, leading the feasibility study of the big-ticket project. (EHP)