While the labor sector and the business groups are struggling to agree on the demand of the workers for a P150 wage increase for Central Visayas, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia announced, during her State of the Province Address (Sopa), that Cebu is still the richest province and declares that the state of the Province is not only strong but “super strong.”
The governor’s Sopa on Tuesday night was part of the celebration of Cebu Province’s 455th Founding Anniversary. Garcia reported that Cebu Province remains the wealthiest province of the country with a net asset of P309.8 billion as of December 2023, a huge increase from the P74 billion in the previous year.
While Cebu Province is the wealthiest in the country, but according to critics of the Capitol, the figures have shown that the number of Cebuanos living below the poverty line is also high.
With Capitol’s “robust tax collection,” its tax revenue reached P1.1 billion, or an increase of 6 percent, while the collection of fees and charges also made a significant increase of 77 percent, or to P180 million, Garcia said. Its locally sourced revenues also increased by 12.72 percent, or to almost P2 billion.
The governor proudly reported that even with the P514.6 million decrease in Capitol’s share from the national tax, the province was still able to finance all its projects and programs.
Governor Garcia, however, said that being the richest province also comes with challenges.
The governor said these challenges are: 1) to “preserve and to guard the assets against waste and depletion; 2) to make the strong financial position work for and make a difference in the lives and livelihoods of the Cebuanos; and 3) to grow the assets to ensure the future generations of infrastructure.”
With the P23 billion annual budget for this year, Capitol has financed the programs and projects it implemented in the different towns and cities under its jurisdiction. She said Capitol is about to complete the concreting of the 890 kilometers of provincial roads, and the concreting of 264.26 kilometers of barangay roads, 219 kilometers of which are already completed.
To recall, Governor Garcia sometime in February this year, in a meeting attended by Naga City Mayor Val Chiong, officials from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB), Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and Japan International Cooperation Agency, ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-7 officials to temporarily stop the road works on the Metro Cebu Expressway (MCE) until a comprehensive assessment on the project’s environmental and safety compliance are conducted.
The MCE will link Naga City to Danao City cutting through the mountain ridges of Cebu. This was designed to serve as the north-south backbone highway that will provide a fast and smooth flow of traffic from Naga City to Danao City and vice versa. This project is also aimed at addressing the traffic congestion in Metro Cebu, especially in the central business districts.
Governor Garcia ordered to stop the road works on Phase 3A in Barangays Inayagan and Cantao-an, Naga City, after a portion of the road had landslides in October last year. She insisted that this part of the road would no longer be practicable as the soil quality is prone to more landslides.
Completion of the MCE would depend on the national budget. Since Capitol has billions to finance any project in Cebu, I believe Governor Garcia, as she said before if my memory serves me right, should now take this MCE project under the care of the Capitol to finish it sooner than expected.
We also would want to know what transpired in the second meeting that the governor scheduled after the first meeting sometime in February this year with the stakeholders, including the mayors and barangay captains, and the DPWH.