Gwen lists highlights of first 100 days

CEBU, Philippines —  Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia spent a large part of the evening of her 64th birthday delivering a report on her first 100 days since returning to Capitol and the report highlighted, among others, her controversial move to terminate "unnecessary" workforce from the provincial government.

This move, Garcia said, led to substantial savings on the part of the province.

"With Memorandum Circular No. 1 - 2019, we began trimming down the bureaucracy by letting go of excess, unnecessary, and overpaid personnel. Before our cost cutting measures were implemented, there were over 2,141 casual and job order employees whose salaries amounted to P564 million annually. Now the number has been reduced to about 1,219 casual and job order employees resulting into savings of over P300 million yearly," she said.

Just this month, the province gave to LBP Service Corporation the contract to supply medical and clerical employees to the provincial government. The company has already began supplying labor force to departments at Capitol and to the 16 district and provincial hospitals here.

"We have implemented the outsourcing of medical and non-medical personnel, to ensure that all positions will be manned at all times. The aim is to increase efficiency while lowering down costs. The millions of savings that we will incur from the outsourcing, we will pour into hospitals and other projects in the form of equipment and other needs," Garcia said.

Another highlight of the report is the recovery of illegally disposed provincial property that includes five roads around Cebu IT Park and a provincial lot along Salinas drive. 

"We soon found out that a number of provincial properties were disposed of or were the subject of grossly disadvantageous agreements. Concerned at this brazen disregard for the patrimony of the Province, we embarked on a relentless crusade to recover these properties," Garcia said.

She made mention of the two Cyberzone Towers from Filinvest, which have been added to the province's list of assets.

Garcia also talked about the many regulating measures she has undertaken to protect provincial industries and resources, among which are the ban on all pork and pork-related products from outside Cebu to prevent the entry of the African Swine Fever, and the quarrying ban.

Garcia also reported on the revival of her pet projects Pasigarbo sa Sugbo, the One Cebu Expo, Gov's Cup, and soon, the Suroy-suroy Sugbo, which were put in place during her previous term as governor. JMO (FREEMAN)