Taking the initiative

Everybody has been gushing about how “beautiful” Terminal 2 of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport is. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte uttered the sentiment when he led the inauguration of the facility last Thursday.

“Cebuanos are very lucky,” he said during the press conference after the ceremony.

Carlos Suarez, president of the Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu, seemed unable to bottle up his emotion. “It makes me feel proud of the progress we are currently facing in Cebu. This should be a model project for both private and public sector,” he said.

Reading the reactions of tourism stakeholders made me well up with pride, as superlatives ruled the day.

Past president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Melanie Ng described the new terminal as “awe-inspiring” and “world-class,” a “showcase of global ingenuity and local creativity” considering that Hong Kong-based Integrated Design Associates and local designers Budji Layug, Royal Pinda and Cebuano Kenneth Cobonpue worked together to come up with a design to pay tribute to Cebuano culture and heritage.

Glenn Soco, past president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the facility “will reinforce Cebu’s position in the global arena as a business and tourism destination.”

Terminal 2 was built by concessionaire GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), a consortium that is 60-percent owned by Filipino construction company Megawide Construction Corp. and 40 percent by Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure Limited. It’s part of the P17.5-billion Mactan airport upgrading project, which is the first airport public-private partnership project in the country.

GMCAC had signed a 25-year concession agreement to manage and upgrade the airport in April 2014.

According to the President, “the construction of this world-class transportation facility shows that the government and private sector partners are committed to provide our people with the necessary infrastructure to be able to be more comfortable, productive and (have a) meaningful life.” Well, of course.

We, Filipinos, not just Cebuanos, deserve decent infrastructure and basic services. I know everyone is praising the new terminal, and don’t get me wrong, even though I have yet to be inside, I, too, am heaving a sigh of relief that finally, finally Cebu has a decent airport. I don’t know about it changing lives, though, but it will definitely “complement the growth and urbanization of Cebu,” to use Soco’s words.

But compared to similar facilities abroad, Terminal 2 is, and I hate to admit it and loathe to say it, quite modest.

We’re so used to getting scraps from the National Government that when something like Terminal 2 is built in our midst, we are at a loss for words. Well, this mindset will have to change. Terminal 2 has shown that we don’t need government to have a “world-class” facility.

The estimated worth of the marijuana plants uprooted last Friday by the Cebu Provincial Police Office in Bayong, Balamban