Gwen: Winning back Capitol properties

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said one of her biggest achievements in her first 100 days of being back in office is the repossession of multiple government properties.

October 8 will mark Garcia’s 100th day in office for her for her fourth term as governor. In an interview, she said that it would be too early to fully assess the state of the province on her one hundredth day.

“It’s too short a time to assess the state of the province. I am not fully responsible for the state of the province,” she said.

Nevertheless, the governor enumerated her biggest accomplishments so far.

“If we speak about the properties of the Province of Cebu that had previously been disposed of -- and I believe in the greater scheme of things, this truly has the most impact to the most number of Cebuanos. Because, this are, after all, the assets of the province, which belong to the constituents,” she said.

“In terms of economic value, I believe what is one of the major accomplishments,” she added.

Among the properties the province has won back is the 849 square meters prime provincial lot at the Cebu IT Park and the P25 million showroom erected on it, two Cyberzone Towers from the province’s previous agreement with Filinvest, five roads at the Cebu IT Park and more recently, the authority to develop a 55-car parking lot also in the same IT park.

As for projects that are "tangible" to the general public, Garcia updated that the province has already bid out the development of 66 kilometers of provincial roads for concreting and has issued the invitation to bid for 40 kilometers of barangay roads.

The province has also bid out to contractors the development of a Level III Water System in the towns of Carmen, Moalboal, and Pinamungajan.

Garcia also said she is in the process of fulfilling her promise to increase the financial incentives for frontline barangay workers.

“By December, I will be fulfilling a promise that I have given our barangay health workers, our barangay tanods, BNS (barangay nutrition scholars), daycare and BAHA (barangay animal health aides) -- our frontline workers, regarding the increase in their financial incentives,” she said.

Garcia also shared that all barangay officials will now be covered by the GSIS group accident insurance.

She also said she takes pride in having revived the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo. This year’s "Festival of Festivals" was the biggest ever in history.

She also said another pet program of her administration, the Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo, will be relaunched this November.  (FREEMAN)