IF ELECTED MAYOR: Nerissa to build new city hall

CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City mayoralty aspirant Rep. Nerissa Soon Ruiz plans to build a new city hall under the Cansaga Bay Bridge in barangay Paknaan once elected mayor.

During the roundtable talk with The FREEMAN reporters and editors recently, Soon-Ruiz said that the existing Mandaue city hall lacks offices especially for the city council.

At present, council members each occupy a cubicle which can hardly be called an office, she said.

Soon-Ruiz said if she is elected mayor, she will transform the existing city hall into a museum and will also put up a three- to four-story city hall.

She said that at present, the eight-kilometer foreshore land near the Cansaga Bay Bridge is being reclaimed by a certain Oscar Chua from which the city government will receive at least a 30 percent share from the land reclaimed where the new city hall will rise.

Soon-Ruiz said it has always been her plan to put up offices for the councilors and a plenary hall once she becomes mayor.

She said she has learned from market vendors about their hesitance to transfer to the new public market which is located at the back of the Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex in barangay Centro.

She said the vendors were never consulted by the city government over the construction of the public market.

Ruiz said the reason why the vendors are hesitant to transfer to the new public market is because it is far and market goers would prefer to buy in grocery stores and malls.

She has told vendors she would help them.

Ruiz said the old public market adds that when the public market was hit with fire during the term of former Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano, she was able to pour a fund of P4 million pesos for its renovation.

However, she said she later knew that the lot where the existing public market now stands had been entered into a usufruct agreement by the city government and its owner many years ago.

Ruiz said that if the market is taken down, the lot will be returned to its real owners.

She said it is better that the market remain in the area, and to renovate it to be competitive with supermarkets and malls in the city.

However, she told the vendors that once the existing market is renovated, it should also be kept away from sidewalk vendors and that there should be a place for the terminal for tricycles and trisikads.

Soon-Ruiz said it only entails political will for the existing public market to become a new and modern public market.

“I don’t want to kill these vendors who have been there for so long nga diha na nakapahuman sa ilang mga anak unya kaliton lang og papahawa,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said she also wants to put up a barter trade center for Muslim residents in the city but urged them not to compete with the regular goods being presently sold in the city.

 She also wants a new cemetery constructed as all cemeteries in the city are already full.

She said once she becomes mayor, an inventory of all government properties will immediately be done in order to accommodate her projects and plans for the city. (FREEMAN NEWS)