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2010: A bumper year for Cebu
By Eddie O. Barrita

Cebu might have ended the year with lesser bang, with fewer firecracker blast injuries reported during the Christmas revelries, but 2010 turned out to be a bumper year for this central Philippine island province.

A boom in business changed Cebu’s skyline with mushrooming skyscrapers soaring high towards the sky. At the Asiatown IT Park in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City alone, at least eight high-rise condominiums and buildings for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector are undergoing construction.

The BPO sector in Cebu now employs some 65,000 workers, with a combined monthly payroll of P1.5 billion. Cebu is now ranked as an emerged BPO destination in Asia. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wants more Cebuanos to be employed in the BPO industry and is offering ten lots at the 300-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) for similar businesses.

The SRP, built on a multi-billion yen-denominated loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), was intended to employ at least 100,000 workers. Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) has bought 10.5 hectares of land at the SRP and has a joint venture with the Cebu City Government to develop another 40 hectares at the SRP. FLI has announced plans to pour in some P25 billion in investments at the SRP.

Shopping mall giant Shoe-Mart also bought a 30-hectare lot at the SRP where it intends to build the biggest mall in the Visayas and Mindanao area. The BPO sector and the tourism industry continued to be the main drivers for Cebu’s resurging economy in 2010, trade and tourism industry leaders said.

Foreign and domestic tourist arrivals to Cebu slightly rose from 1.2 million in 2009 to 1.3 million in 2010. In 2010, Cebu stood out as the country’s shipbuilding capital after it launched a 100,000-gross ton ship, the biggest and the 140th ship built at the Tsuneishi Cebu Heavy Industries (TCHI) shipyard at the West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban town in Cebu’s western seaboard.

TCHI, a joint venture of Tsuneishi Heavy Industries of Japan and the Cebu-based Aboitiz group of companies, employs some 8,000 workers with a combined monthly payroll of P1.2 billion.

But health authorities have to contend with the recurring problem of the mosquito-borne dengue fever and the outbreak of diarrhea in Danao City in the north and typhoid fever in Alegria town in southern Cebu towards the end of the year.

The Department of Health (DOH) 7 has listed Cebu City with the most number of cases in Central Visayas, with 3,244 and 15 deaths.

At least 300 people were hospitalized in Danao City for treatment of diarrhea which was later traced to contaminated water source. The outbreak was controlled after local officials and health authorities installed chlorinators at the water source.

Some 150 people in Alegria town were also hospitalized in nearby hospitals for typhoid fever. Health officials said the outbreak has been controlled.

Health authorities, however, noted a decrease in the number of firecracker-related injuries in Cebu this year at only 13 cases compared to 18 cases reported in 2009.

Police said it was generally quiet all over Cebu during Christmas. Lesser bang for a bumper year for Cebu. (PNA Feature) DCT/EB

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