Cebu’s decline blamed on current officials

Amando Doronila cited in a recent  column socioeconomic data indicating that Cebu has slid from being the country’s premier province to what he now calls the “poverty capital of the Philippines” (Opinion, 4/1/16).

As a proud Sugbuanon (native of Cebu), I cannot sit idly by and watch Cebu deteriorate day after day. We used to lead the development in the South, competing head-on with the progress of Metro Manila. Now we are falling behind our neighbors in the Visayas and Mindanao. Despite the so-called closeness of our current provincial officials to Malacañang, under their leadership, Cebu loses billions of pesos in funds intended for the development of our beloved province to “Imperial Manila.”

I am ashamed that under the present administration, Cebu has lost its competitive standing from No. 1 to No. 3. From the “Queen City of the South” Cebu has been degraded to the “Poverty Capital of the Philippines.”

Is this the kind of direction we wish to continue in the next three years? Is this the kind of future we want for our children? The type of legacy we leave behind for our younger Sugbuanons?

In the last three years, Cebu province has lost a great deal of opportunities, among them the holding of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit right in our own province.

Provincial properties and facilities are sad monuments to the deterioration of Cebu because of the absence of a strong leader: the South Bus Terminal which used to be air-conditioned, the Cebu International Convention Center in a state of disrepair, the preventable deaths at the district hospitals, rampant drug addiction in our municipalities, the exploitation of our children in Cordova.

Let us end this continued inaction of our leaders in Cebu. Kami diri sa One Cebu adunay klarong plano kung unsaon pagbalik sa garbo sa Sugbo. (We in One Cebu have a clear plan on how to restore Cebu’s grandeur.) Let us work together for a “Bag-ong Cebu” (New Cebu).

—WINSTON GARCIA