BECOMING more business-friendly by implementing the One-Stop Shop to streamline transactions, including processing of permits online, is one of the factors that contributed to Lapu-Lapu City being recognized as the fourth fastest growing economy among provinces and highly urbanized cities (HUCs) outside the National Capital Region in 2022.
It also helped that the city’s lone district representative, his wife Cindi King-Chan, Vice Mayor Celedonio Sitoy, and members of the City Council share his goal to focus on improving the city’s infrastructure, Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan said in an interview Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, on “Beyond the Headlines,” SunStar Cebu’s online news and commentary program.
He said it was different during his first term in 2019 when he had only two councilors as allies and the rest were members of the opposition.
The mayor said they are currently allocating funds to expropriate properties that will be affected by proposed road opening and concreting in various parts of the city.
Addressing traffic
They are also improving existing drainage systems and installing new ones, he said.
He said road construction is crucial in solving the city’s perennial traffic problem.
He said the City expects the start of the civil works on a coastal road in the second quarter of this year.
Chan said they are just waiting for the Department of Public Works and Highways to bid out the project since the budget is already available.
He hopes the city’s improved infrastructure will attract more investors.
He said they are waiting for the entry of Okada Manila, a casino resort and hotel complex, and for the construction of one of the biggest convention centers in Cebu and a resort world, both to be built in Mactan Newtown.
Chan said the City Government has implemented a moratorium on the construction of condominiums and subdivisions to fast-track the construction of road infrastructure.
He said they have temporarily halted the release of permits to developers since November 2022 so the City can prioritize addressing the traffic problem.
Proposed skyway
He said they expect the groundbreaking of the P24 billion Lapu-Lapu Expressway in April.
The project will be the first skyway outside of Metro Manila. It will connect the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Barangay Gabi, Cordova to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City.
Chan said the City is also eyeing a 25-hectare socialized housing project to house informal settlers who will be relocated from the coastal areas. This will be on top of the socialized housing project of the National Government through the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development.
He said the construction of an P800 million building on the parking lot in the City Hall complex will start in the middle of the year.
The new building will become the City Hall, while the old one will be converted into a museum.
Chan said they already shelved the plan to build the new City Hall in the proposed 400-hectare “island-like” reclamation project in Barangay Ibo. He hopes the reclamation project will be implemented this year.
The project is a public-private partnership between the Lapu-Lapu City Government and Salug Valley Enterprises and Development Corp.