Mactan’s future

She hasn’t even arrived in Congress yet and already, Rep.-elect Aileen Radaza came out with a proposal to create a Mactan province separate from Cebu province.
The proposal actually came from her father, outgoing Rep. Arturo Radaza of Lapu-Lapu City’s lone district who supposedly reviewed the census of the population of Olango Island, Lapu-Lapu City and all the others covered by the proposed Mactan province.
A legal team is on standby  in case the bill gets deliberated in Congress, Rep. Radaza said. The proposal on the surface looks promising that even  Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy is on board, saying that the municipality is willing to join the proposed Mactan province.
From all indications, the proposed Mactan province can even make Cebu officials nervous. The Mactan reclamation project covers an area even bigger than the South Road Properties (SRP), Cebu City’s prime real estate centerpiece project.
If Mactan province does become a reality, it would become the most formidable economic growth area that can more than compete with Cebu, Manila and Davao.
With its vast land area and resources alone, Mactan can be a prime eco-tourism destination if developed right.  It gives one a sense that the proposed Mactan province can give other local destinations a run for their money.
The likelihood of it passing is quite strong, though it would be courting opposition notably from incoming Rep.-elect Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district who has often mentioned her attempts to stop the so-called “Sugbuak” movement among Cebu officials.
This may or may not be a repeat of that movement but the Garcias have long opposed moves by the Radazas to distance Lapu-Lapu City away from the Capitol or from the rest of the province.
Establishing new provinces is as old as the 1987 Constitution itself, when the grip of Imperial Manila has many local governments in Cebu, some parts of the Visayas and Mindanao grumbling and threatening to declare independence from the Republic of the Philippines.
The Mactan province proposal isn’t that drastic and in fact is dependent on the promise of national government funding or an increased Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) to make it a working reality.
What would validate the argument for a Mactan province is the support of the governed themselves. Based on the initial reactions of constituents, a Mactan province sounds like a dream for Olango and Cordova towns, who have yet to receive the funding it needs to come into their own as developing LGUs.
The kind of people who will spearhead a new Mactan province is another issue altogether but for the meantime, this proposal should be given serious thought by Cebu’s leaders after the euphoria of their election victories die down and they buckle down to work.