This Week in Cebu (April 21 to 27, 2019)

The Cebu City Council declared a state of calamity in the city due to the effects of El Niño [1]. This declaration is timely as the Queen City of the South is expected to have mostly sunny weather throughout the week. While the clouds may provide some respite during the day, rain showers appear to be a thing of the past these days. The state of calamity will allow the local government to use calamity funds to mitigate the effects of El Nino, which already caused water shortages in some parts of the city. Temperatures for the week will range from 250C to 340C.

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) announced recently that a “certificate of no pending case” should be required before public utility buses can be registered at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) [2]. The certificate should be issued by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The certificate is a part of a new set of guidelines that ensure owners and operators of public buses give right compensation to their drivers and conductors. The compensation scheme includes a fixed monthly compensation, overtime, and 13th month pay. This will replace the performance-based compensation and discourage drivers from racing to reach the next stop ahead of the others.

Travelers to and from Cebu should expect some delays in their flights as the rehabilitation of the runway of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport started on April 8 [3]. Airport authorities said there may be longer taxiing times for some airplanes upon arrival or right before they take off since they may take a roundabout route depending on which phase of the runway is being worked on. The work will be done in phases to avoid major disruptions is airport operations. General maintenance of the taxiways will run until June 6 while work will be done between 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM during the rehabilitation of the runway.

To secure and keep the waters in the Visayas safe, an inter-agency maritime patrol was launched by the National Coast Watch System (NCWS) regional coordinating center central (RCCC) recently [4]. The activity is the first coordinated maritime safety and security exercise the Central Visayas that will support tourism activities in the region. The patrols will be conducted by members of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Naval Forces Central (Navforcen) of the Philippine Navy. The launch of the patrols is timely as tourism officials are expecting a high volume of travelers visiting the most visited tourist spots during the Holy Week and the summer season.

Tourists normally visit Oslob to swim with the whale sharks. But they may have something else to look forward to when they visit this southern Cebu town. A restaurant in Barangay Gawi features a garden with 3,000 plastic tulips [5]. The setup at the Tulip Valley Flower is similar to the 10,000 Roses Café in Cordova. Businessman Mancini Romares is hoping that it will become another tourist stopover in the town. Around 60 percent of the plastic tulips are made of 18,000 plastic spoons the businessman collected from parties in the area. The plastic tulips are colored red, white, and yellow, and they are set up beside a garden with real flowers in an area overlooking the sea.

An ordinance aimed at totally banning single-use plastics in the city still awaits the approval of the Cebu City Council [6]. The ordinance hit a snag when the Committee on Laws aims to resolve any issues between the proposed ordinance and a proposal banning the use of plastics and Styrofoam during sports activities in the city. A public hearing was scheduled on the proposed ban of single-use plastics on April 30. The City Council requested the presence of other stakeholders, including the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), and the market association. Since some industries disagree with the ban, the ordinance will be implemented gradually over a tree-year period.

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