Gov to DPWH: Finish road repairs for APEC

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III has asked the Department of Public Works and Highways-7 to complete road repairs before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s series of meetings that start August this year.

Davide made the request Monday during a meeting with stakeholders and government agencies involved in the preparation for the international event that would be held in Cebu.

The governor specifically pointed out the roads leading to the meeting venues as well as to the hotels and resorts where delegates would be billeted.

The meeting venues, where the delegates would also be accommodated, are the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel-Cebu, and Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. Another venue is the Grand Convention Center of Cebu.

Provincial Tourism Officer Grace Paulino said that in response, DPWH-7 representatives assured during the meeting that their office would finish the road works in time for the APEC.

She, however, said they have yet to receive feedback from the DPWH-Cebu City engineering district office because it was not represented during the coordination meeting.

“Number one that we are monitoring now are the roads. If you can see naa pay wa pa nahuman,” she told reporters.

The province will host the third APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting on August 24 to September 6 this year.

Apart from this, there are also four ministerial meetings to be held in Cebu, specifically on September 7 to 8 about structural reform, September 10 to 11 (finance), October 8 to 10 (transportation), and October 12 to 14 (energy).

The province will be creating an APEC local organizing committee that would coordinate with its national counterpart.

Paulino said the governor will head the committee, which will also have the chief executives of the cities of Mandaue, Cebu, and Lapu-Lapu.

The province has also identified six subcommittees, namely that for security, media affairs, conference services, operations, utilities, and road network.

Paulino said composition of the local organizing committee and its subcommittees, as well as the names of the appointees, will be finalized and presented to Davide before the next coordination meeting on March 23.

The meeting last Monday was attended by representatives of the Hotels, Restaurants and Resorts Association of Cebu, Cebu Association of Tour Operators, DPWH, Philippine National Police, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the three city governments. — (FREEMAN)