Osmeña’s goal: A ‘cleaner’ Cebu City

CEBU CITY–Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants a “cleaner” Cebu City in terms of drugs and crime, wastes collection and banning the use of plastics and getting rid of overhead hanging wires, among other concerns in his State of the City Address Tuesday.

In his 15-minute speech Osmeña took pride in providing his personal number to his constituents for their complaints or reports.

He sees this as a big help in the fight against illegal drugs and helped the city police force under Joel Doria garner an award as best performing drug enforcement unit in the entire country.

“Because of Colonel Doria, Cebu City is now the best performing drug enforcement unit in the whole Philippines. Many of these because of the text messages that we have received and Colonel Doria acted upon. This achievement is made possible because of the help of few who send their texts, please keep them coming,” the mayor said.

He asked the city council to support his plans to create a sports park at the South Road Properties that will have a skateboard area, and tennis and basketball courts to keep the youth from vices and illegal drugs.

Osmeña made special mention the opening of the Rizal Public Library on a 24-hour operation daily for students.

Turning to livelihood programs, the mayor said that under his administration, he was able to provide livelihood to at least 170 single mothers by training them as call center agents.

“I will push for Cebu as a ‘Call Center City’ by training 100,000 agents, providing them an opportunity of taking up their master’s degree without hampering their jobs to provide constant improvement and dynamism in the BPO industry here,” Osmena said.

To decongest the I.T. Park where most BPOs are located, Osmena said he will open South Road Properties to some private and government business opportunity.

He also reported that the city spent up to P77 million to help 8,000 patients who need medical assistance.

He also plans to get rid of overhead wires and asked the council to pass the ordinance banning use of plastics in the city.

Not everyone was impressed by Osmeña’s speech. One of his critics, City Councilor Joel Garganera, said he found the SOCA “boring and its achievements dull.”

Garganera said Osmeña claimed Doria’s achievements in fighting illegal drugs as his own.

“He steals achievements of Doria and he claimed to be instrumental in the fight against drugs because of the information he forwarded to Doria. These are all lies, you confirmed it with Doria, it’s been two years already but Doria did not receive any vehicle from City Government,” Garganera said.