Mini City Hall opens in Taptap

Starting November, residents of barangay Taptap, a mountainous area in Cebu City, and the neighboring areas will no longer have to travel far to transact business with City Hall.

Mayor Michael Rama yesterday opened the three-story, P9.4 million City Hall satellite office in the barangay.

The mayor promised to station an ambulance, a fire truck and other needed emergency equipment at the mini city hall for the use of the mountain barangays.

With these, Rama said city government response to landslides, fires and other emergencies will no longer have to come from the city proper. “The signs of the times do not favor a centralization of government. It has to be autonomous,” he said during yesterday’s launching.

Rama instructed Dominic Diño, head of the Human Resource and Development Office, to finalize the list of employees who will be assigned to man the satellite office.

For now, the building already has tables for 22 city departments, frontline and support offices, and for policies, planning and revenue generation services. It also has a small mayor’s office and healthcare room.

Fr. Patricio Ornopia officiated the Mass which preceded the ribbon cutting and blessing of the new city hall.

Residents welcome this development. They used to spend around P500 on fare to and from the city hall and back to their houses. They take motorcycles-for-hire (habal-habal) to travel from their barangay.

With the opening of the mini city hall, they can now walk to process documents.”

“Nalipay mi kay dili na na mi kailangan muadto pa sa syudad nga para magkuha ug mga dokumento kay wa miy kwarta,” said 60-year old Sevena Alcantara. (We’re happy as this would mean we can cut down on travel expenses.)

The P9.36 million building is still in its first phase. For now, only one floor has been built.

“This is only the beginning,” said Rama.

For 23-year-old Maribel Laspuña who just gave birth last month, it would have been better if she had availed of the services of the satellite office during her delivery. But she has no regrets, as she had a medical check-up in yesterday’s “City Hall at Your Doorsteps” in barangay Taptap.

Eva Malazarte, a grade one teacher in Taptap Elementary School who also sells sweet corn as a family business, said she hopes the satellite office can help them connect with their buyers. Rama wants the City Agriculture Department and the Cebu City Hilly Land Management Board to focus on helping the farmers in the mountain barangays.