2 cities dream of metropolis
Two new cities in Eastern Visayas are striving hard to be worthy of becoming a metropolis.
Baybay City in west Leyte province is expected to become the next economic center of Eastern Visayas. Several businessmen and investors have shown interest in Baybay especially with its new 9-hectare reclamation project which will become the city’s new commercial center.
Borongan City, the first city in Eastern Samar province, on the other hand, is being promoted as the new tourist destination in the region, especially with its white sand beaches, caves, rivers, waterfalls and beautiful islets.
The Borongan City government is also moving to restore its forests and to protect the remaining ones by hiring forest guards.
Baybay
Even before it became a city, Baybay was already bustling with economic activities.
With a land area of 459 square kilometers, Baybay houses not only the Visayas State University but also three big establishments that export processed coconut and abaca products.
Next year, these businesses, which have availed of the five-year tax holiday, will start paying taxes to the city.
Although the people’s clamor for cityhood started in the 1950s, Baybay became a city only on Feb. 15, 2011.
Baybay’s income, which was pegged at P39 million in 2001, had doubled to about P60 million. Its Internal Revenue Allocation this year is about P395 million.
Many businessmen from the cities of Ormoc, Tacloban and Maasin have moved to Baybay since its cityhood. They bought pieces of property and put up new businesses such as restaurants and bakeries, said Baybay Vice Mayor Michael Cari.
With a bustling economy, the vice mayor said the local government asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to construct a road to divert vehicles from the city proper because it is already congested.
Mayor Carmen Cari, the vice mayor’s mother, said many businesses have shown interests on the 9-ha reclamation area being developed by the city government near the pier site at a cost of about P150 million.
She said the reclamation project could house a commercial center, a hotel, a tent city garden park, an office building, a park, an astrodome, a shopping mall and a place for vendors of the famous Baybay chicken barbecue, among others.
The project is expected to be completed late this year.
Some new big businesses have also recently located in Baybay. Among them are a Chinese firm that is into processing of coco coir and SC Global Coco Products Inc., which is putting up another coconut processing plant in Baybay.
These multimillion-peso plants are to be operational by late this year.
“We will be producing organic coconut water, organic desiccated coconut and also organic virgin coconut oil,” Emmanuel Licup, managing director of SC Global, said of their new project.
SC Global has a coconut oil processing plant operating in Baybay City. Their “reinvesting, putting up of a new investment in Baybay, is a form of confidence on us investors. Baybay has basically provided these things not only to our company but to all of us investors here,” Licup said.
Mayor Cari said they were able to attract investors because of the Local and Regional Economic Development initiative, which was introduced by the German Technical Cooperation in 2005.
It enabled Baybay to establish a tourism and investment promotion office, and prepare a five-year tourism and investment plan, which identifies and promotes sectors with high growth potential, she said.
Baybay also boasts of tourist attractions like beaches, falls, mangrove area and fish ponds, jungle valley park, caves and old churches.
Borongan
Borongan, on the other hand, may have become a city but it has not lost its rustic beauty.
City Administrator Jose Ivan Dayan Agda said Borongan Mayor Maria Fe Abunda is undertaking a massive reforestation project and has hired forest enforcers to run after illegal loggers.
He said the mayor released early this year about P6 million for a reforestation project. “We hope we could someday get carbon credits for preserving our vast forest,” he said.
Borongan, with a population of 60,000, has a land area of 58,289 ha, of which 12,619 are alienable and disposable, while 45,669 are forest land.
Mining is also banned in this city due to the clamor of the people, Agda said.
A massive tax collection drive netted the city about P27 million last year, which is higher than what it usually collects. This was made without passing new tax measures, he said.
According to Agda, the development of the city’s cemetery, slaughterhouse and a city-owned vacant lot in the city proper are open to any potential investor.
Tourism is also a priority of the city government.
The mayor is implementing her Baysay Borongan (Beautiful Borongan) project, a cleanliness and beautification drive in all of the city’s 61 villages.
She also plans to develop Monbon Island, an islet at the city’s marine sanctuary area, into a beach destination, and Loom River in the city proper as a river cruising destination.
The city is also known as a surfing destination. Recently, Italian cavers explored the Talubagnan Cave in Barangay (village) Bato.
The city is undertaking drainage and road projects in the city proper.
Mayor Abunda said the city’s airport would be rehabilitated soon. Its apron, taxiway and access road will be concreted, and a terminal building and perimeter fence will be constructed.
She expressed hope that once the airport project is completed and flights between Manila and Borongan is resumed, many tourists will visit the city.
Unlike Baybay, economic activity in Borongan is not so active because of proximity to big market centers like Tacloban City, the regional center.
Baybay is just about 110 km away from Tacloban while Borongan is more than 200 km away. Baybay is also near Cebu, a premier city in the Visayas.
Abunda said she was still waiting for investors to come to Borongan. She admitted though that investors shy away from Borongan because of the unstable power supply and the bad roads.
The road condition, however, might soon improve with the completion of a road rehabilitation project in Borongan.
Abunda said some businesses based in Tacloban City had shown interest in opening branches in Borongan, but the erratic power supply made them change their minds.
Despite the problems, many businesses are already operating in Borongan City.
