Cebu mayor asks Aquino, ‘What projects?’

CEBU CITY — Despite President Aquino’s claims that the national government may have poured billions of pesos for provincial infrastructure projects in Cebu, but where Cebu City is concerned, Mayor Michael Rama asks, “what projects are there that we have (from government)?”

Rama’s query was in response to local media here who were asking him to comment on figures released by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to indicate that the national government has not been neglecting Cebu in terms of infrastructure projects.

Opposition head and Aquino government critic, Vice President Jejomar Binay who was in Cebu at the same time that the President and his LP presidential anointed candidate, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas were in Cebu Monday, had gone around here, lambasting the administration, saying that it has been “neglecting Cebu.” In reaction, the DPWH issued a status report indicating that some P5.88 billion worth of projects were implemented in Cebu City from 2011 to 2015. However, Rama claimed this was not true.

“Where are those particular projects? Where is it? The projects we implemented in Cebu City were funded by the city. There were projects involving road maintenance but I’m looking for major projects, there are none,” Rama told reporters.

He further claimed that since he became mayor in 2010, he only asked for one project from the national government, that is, the reconstruction of Carbon Market Unit 2. However, Rama said, “it was not funded (by the national government).”

Last Monday, the President told an estimated 10,000 people who gathered at the Cebu Coliseum that Cebu can be proud of its modern infrastructure network with the implementation of various projects worth a total of P22.8 billion since he assumed the Presidency in 2010.

The President made that assertion to dispute Binay’s claim of Vice that government has not given any priority to Cebu’s infrastructure needs, resulting to Cebu’s supposed decline in the national competitive index.