CEBU CITY, Philippines – One of the oldest malls in Cebu, located along historical Colon Street, re-opened its doors to the public, after the mall’s management embarked on a P20-million renovation. Colon Heritage Realty Corporation (CHRC) opened recently the Colonnade Shopping Mall, which is one of the landmarks along Colon Street, considered the oldest street in the country.
CHRC President Valeriano “Bobbit” Avila said the mall hopes to position itself as “everybody’s mall,” with occupancy rate now at 90 percent. The opening of the mall signals the revival of Colon’s attractiveness, with emphasis on putting on high-technology security facilities inside the mall, Avila said. (Malou M. Mozo)
Cebu aid
CEBU PROVINCIAL CAPITOL — Cebu Province and the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga have yet to establish sisterhood ties, but this did not prevent the Province of Cebu from extending P5 million each to the two provinces which were badly hit by two recent typhoons.
Vice Governor Agnes Magpale earlier received a text message from the representative of the Vice Governors’ League of the Philippines about the two provinces’ call for assistance following the devastation caused by typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel.” Magpale waited for Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to return from the United States before announcing the giving of assistance Friday. (Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.)
Public safety
CEBU CITY — With the expected increase in the number of people who will be using the various seaports, airport, and bus terminals here, the Cebu City government has instructed the local police to ensure the safety of the public.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama personally instructed Cebu City Police Office director Melvin Ramon Buenafe to ensure that robberies will not happen in seaports and various public utility vehicle terminals. Rama said criminals are expected to intensify their illegal activities in highly-urbanized cities like Cebu City because of the approaching holiday season, with many commuters may be traveling with huge amounts of money. (Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.)
Prices stable
ILOILO CITY (PNA) – Prices of basic commodities in Iloilo City remain stable despite the flooding in some barangays due to tropical depression "Ramon" on Wednesday.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Iloilo Senior Trade and Industry Development Specialist Luisa Garnica said they conducted a daily monitoring of prices on Oct. 11, 12, and 13 per advice of their regional and central offices to make sure that retailers would not take advantage of the tendency of consumers to do panic buying.
Green program
CEBU CITY (PNA) – Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he intends to spend the P2-million prize money from the Gawad Pamanang Lahi Awards for the city government’s “greening” program. Rama said he will use the money to buy seedlings and then tap Cebu City schools to use their vacant lots as gardens.
Under the Gawad Pamana criteria, Cebu City also excelled in local legislation, revenue generation, customer service health services, support to education, support to housing and basic utilities, peace and disaster risk management. But Rama said the city has to work on development planning and resource allocation to grab the national award next year. Cebu City scored 3.65 out of a perfect 5 for development planning and 3.92 out of 5 for resource allocation and utilization.