Cebu City’s Merlion reminder to Singapore-like aspirations

ATTENTION GETTER A replica of Singapore’s famous icon, the Merlion, now stands in front of a restaurant in Cebu City’s Carbon Market, built by the establishment’s owner to support Mayor Michael Rama’s aspiration for a “Singapore-like” city. The structure, unveiled on Feb. 13, is now turning into another attraction in the city. PHOTO COURTESY OF JED ARIES YU

CEBU CITY—How to inspire Cebuanos to support the city’s aspirations to become like Singapore? Build the city-state’s most famous mascot—the Merlion.

That is exactly what a restaurateur in Cebu City did.

A merlion, a mythical creature with a lion’s head and the body of a fish, now stands in the middle of Carbon Market, the city’s biggest public market.

It was built by Luche Abines and her partners, who own a restaurant in Carbon, not just to attract customers but to remind Cebuanos of Mayor Michael Rama’s aspirations to turn Cebu City into a first world metropolis like Singapore.

Abines, co-owner of Bora Bay Restaurant, said the 8-foot merlion was made of fiberglass, a reinforced plastic material composed of glass fibers embedded in a resin matrix. She begged off from revealing the actual cost of building the Merlion but said it reached “six figures.”

Cebu’s merlion statue, which was made by a local artist, has already become an attraction since it was installed last Feb. 13.

“We thought of having something that would attract customers, and so we decided to have the Merlion to reverberate Mayor Rama’s Singapore-like aspirations. Who wouldn’t want to have a business that is close to Singapore,” Abines told the Inquirer.

The Merlion structure in Singapore is 8.6 meters tall and spouts water from its mouth. It has subsequently been joined by a merlion cub, which is located near the original statue and measures just two meters tall.

The installation of the Merlion in Carbon tickled Rama, saying it would remind the Cebuanos of his aspirations of improving the state of the Cebu City. INQ