Feedback to Honorable Mike Rama, Mayor of Cebu

MORE ON PARIAN DEVELOPMENTS
(Feedback to Honorable Mike Rama, Mayor of Cebu)
by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

I have been tempted to write a letter to the Mayor, Mike Rama, but I didn’t want to get entangled with the technicalities of how one should address the Mayor – should that be Honorable Mike Rama, or Mayor Mike Rama, or Mr. Mike Rama? Everyone calls him Mike Rama, and I’ve met him a couple of times, and he’s a very personable guy who’ll sing at the first request. So I decided to blog my feedback to him.

What I want to say to him is this: Thank you for your beautification program that’s going on in Historic Cebu. I live in Old Cebu and I see street cleaners cleaning twice a day – note that’s twice a day. Many of the roads have been re-asphalted. If I’m not mistaken, the river with the historic bridge with a plaque is being dredged. At least it looked that way. And here I note that while a heavy rain was going on, this river flowed, meaning the water is moving and not adding to the flooded streets.

Those of us involved in heritage work in Cebu have always known Mike Rama supported the development of Historic Cebu. Now that he’s mayor, he’s “walking his talk.”

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, or Honorable Mayor, or Mike!

Now I’d like to suggest a few things related to the cleanup beautification program:

1. How about putting out garbage cans so the public can stop throwing trash on the roads and sidewalk? I realize real cans may get stolen, but how about using those gigantic containers made of recycled tire rubber? I believe I saw something like this in the Metro Manila area.

2. How about having some clean public bathrooms, where people can pay a few pesos to use the facilities, and put some of our own people to work by minding those toilets. I saw this in Eastern Europe where they had public bathrooms minded by old women, who kept the bathrooms scrupulously clean, and one had to pay a bit to use the facilities.

3. To encourage building owners in the historic district to participate in this beautification program, how about the local government offer some tax breaks for those who paint their homes or fix up their places?

4. How about we educate some of these building owners in the historic district of Cebu that the days of warehouses and boarders are at a wane and that it’s time to look at improving their buildings with the idea that the area is historic and that tourists visit it?

5. How about the government implement laws against illegal unlicensed structures, hanging over or right next to or even over rivers and creeks? As you know, Mr. Mayor, for the first time, our Fuente Osmena has experienced flooding. Cebu needs clear channels for water to flow to the sea, otherwise the very people living on the banks of these rivers and creeks will be seriously jeopardized when there is flooding, as what happened recently in Davao. They should be relocated and the waterways dredged and cleaned. It is a necessity for the good of all. I’m also speaking about waterways that have been completely built over, in the Tinago area. I also understand some big department stores in the Colon area have built over waterways, using these as part of their properties. Flood water now simply does not have a channel to flow through and thus flows throughout the city. Disaster and tragedy wait ready to happen if these are unattended to. (I’m not even talking about aesthetics and the health hazards of having human waste dumped straight into our rivers.)

6. The irregular sidewalks will kill tourists; so the City should probably do something about these. Maybe I’m asking too much, but how about looking at a section and focusing on that, as they did in Vigan, where they developed just a few streets until the idea caught on? How about the part where tourists do a walking tour – let’s fix up the sidewalks there!


Mr. Mayor, Honorable Mayor, Mike, am I dreaming, or is it a real possibility that the historic district can be beautiful, and that Cebuanos can one day soon be genuinely proud to show off this place to the numerous tourists that come see it anyway?

How many tourists do we get during the sinulog – millions, am I right? And those tourists will spend money in Cebu, and hotels, restaurants, taxis, stores, everyone is going to benefit from the visitors.

Truly, from the bottom of heart, thank you for your beautification