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THE MANDAUE City Council wants City Hall to hold meetings with its two highly urbanized neighbors – Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City – over proposals by the Cebu provincial government to form a Metropolitan Cebu Development Council (MCDC).
Both Vice Mayor Carlo Fotuna and Councilor Victor Biaño said the three cities’ participation to the MCDC is crucial to the body’s success.
“If Lapu-Lapu (City) or Cebu (City) will not join, then we should not join either,” said Biaño, majority floor leader of the City Council.
“We still don’t have any idea what the purpose of this grouping is,” the councilor added.
“There is a need for an informal meeting with the the three cities because the council’s (MCDC) success lies on the support and cooperation of the major cities,” Fortuna said.
Fortuna said the meeting among the three cities should be held before Dec. 11, when the local government units that would compose the MCDC would sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA).
Lapu-Lapu City Vice Mayor Mario Amores said he would raise Mandaue City’s suggestion to Mayor Arturo Radaza.
Amores said he was in favor of a meeting among the three cities.
“We have enough time to decide,” Amores told . “I see it as nothing to do with our being independent from the province. I see it as an opportunity to participate in development plans.”
“But there is still so much that is vague,” Amores added.
The Mandaue City Council deferred last week the request of Mayor Jonas Cortes to be given authority to sign the MOA to join the MCDC. Councilors wanted more information on the MCDC before giving the authority to the mayor.
Mayor Radaza and his advisers were still discussing the proposal, said City Attorney Michael Dignos.
“We are discussing the pros and cons, especially since we are already a highly urbanized city, just like Mandaue and Cebu City,” Dignos said.
According to the draft MOA, the MCDC is to be composed of the highly urbanized cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, Cebu province’s component cities of Talisay, Danao, Carcar, and Naga, and the municipalities of Compostela, Liloan, Consolacion, Cordova, and Minglanilla.
The Regional Development Council in Central Visayas designated Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia as ex-officio chairperson of the MCDC.
Fortuna said he would initiate talks with Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City, despite Cebu City’s absence from the draft MOA.
Fortuna wanted to know the full extent of the MCDC’s authority.
Biaño, on the other hand, said he read the draft. There were provisions that gave the MCDC a say on the way local government units handle their projects, he added.
Biaño said joining the MCDC would also take away a large amount from the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment – around P495,000.
