HERITAGE | Osmeña Boulevard as Spanish-era camino. Say that again.

Below is the CDN story on the Osmena Blvd. restoration project to turn it into a Spanish-era road. The Osmena Blvd. was built during the American era. A source said the reporter had it wrong. I wonder who did. Will someone please clarify things.

Osmeña Blvd. facelift needs P50M

4/7/2011

By Doris C. Bongcac, Reporter

Imagine Osmeña Boulevard transformed into a Spanish-era walkway with brick sidewalks and colonial lamps.

But before this could be done, the Beautiful Cebu Foundation needs to raise at least P50 million in donations to fund the Osmeña Boulevard Revitalization Project.

“We have to tap everybody’s help because we only have one goal. We all love Cebu,” said Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, the foundation’s chairperson.

She presented the plans yesterday in a meeting at the social hall of Cebu City’s Legislative Building where they agreed to solicit support from business establishments along the main road.

Architect Tessie Javier said upgrading the 2.5-kilometer sidewalk would cost P20,000 per meter or about P50 million.

At present, Osmeña Boulevard has sidewalks that are three 3 meters to seven meters wide although the ideal span is is seven meters, she said.

“We will have a sidewalk with details reflective of Cebu’s heritage, something that would show what Cebu was like during the Spanish rule,” Javier said.

Also in the meeting were foundation vice chairperson Margie Lhuillier, lawyer Christina Garcia-Frasco, Javier, Bankers Club president Chito Cabaero, businessmen Bunny Pages and Efrain Pelaez and Ted Locson of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Yeung pledged to donate P1 million to the foundation while Pages pledged P100,000.

Yeung, a mutual friend of Mayor Michael Rama and Gov. Gwen Garcia, said the foundation would like donations from business entities to be tax deductible to encourage more participation.

“But the proposal is still subject to the approval of the mayor,” she said.

The foundation will launch its fund-raising activity and campaign to revitalize Osmeña Boulevard on May 2.

Although she’s a registered voter in Bogo City, Yeung owns a house in Cebu City where she operates her businesses and engages in philanthropic activities.

BRIEFLY | Americanizing the plaza dedicated to Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, great Spanish conquestador

BEFORE AND AFTER.

The flowers disappeared from the landscaping, leaving just green, white and gray in the picture, colors reminiscent of a Mormon church grounds. The white-washed obelisk looks as American as Washington DC.

White is not a Spanish color. Yellow is. The renovation disregarded history and alienates. It is more attuned to the American constructed Customs building instead of the Fort which is its contemporary. The downtown is supposed to be more European and Latin in influence standing side by side a scattering of American colonial structures.

The American part of the city starts at Jones Avenue and goes all the way up to Fuente Osmena and the Capitol. The American-style landscaping of the Plaza Independencia is better suited if it were done to Fuente Osmena instead.

FOLIO | The fort and plaza in pictures

HERITAGE | Museum night

Scenes from the Gabii sa Kabilin

INSIGHT | Plaza Independencia's new look

| by J.D. VELEZ

| Blogger

You have to hand it to Mayor Mike Rama. He has spruced up the city in less than a year in office. To date, he has either repainted or renovated the Cebu City Medical Center, the City Hall, Sugbo Plaza, Cebu City Library and Museum, and the latest, Plaza Independencia, as seen here.

There's not much to discuss with the other projects. They're moves in the right direction. Plaza Independencia, however, is an interesting case. It is a significant public square as it is Cebu's premier plaza during the Spanish colonial period, then known as the Plaza Maria Cristina. It was fronting the seat of Spanish government in the island, the Plaza de Gobierno.

As in all Spanish towns and cities, these three are fixtures: the Church, the Government House and the Public Square. These three were present in the area of Plaza Independencia. Just a stone-throw are the Cathedral and the Basilica Minore in honor of the Sto. Nino de Cebu. And just like many European cities which were often besieged by enemies, there is the fort right next to the Plaza which saved the Spaniards when Leon Kilat almost defeated them on 3April 1898. And where wealthy Don Jacinto Velez y Roa was incarcerated after his son, Marcial Velez, Cebu's chief of police during the early years of American rule, rejoined the revolutionaries. But that's another story.

Going back to Plaza Independencia, there's no greater tribute to Miguel Lopez de Legaspi than the monument right in the heart of the plaza in honor of the great conquestador who conquered Cebu and the rest of the country, which his predecessors failed to achieve. So you see, the plaza is very much a Spanish fixture as the fort and basilica.

Together with the American-era constructed customs house, and post office, they gave the place an interesting historical mix. Two colonial eras represented by the structures they left behind standing side by side. I had no problem with eclecticism. We are a postmodern, post-colonial city and naturally, things don't blend seamlessly. There are always structures left behind by discarded world views.

Now, the Plaza looks like part of a Mormon Church complex. It's all white structures and green grass. In fact, it looks familiarly similar to the Mormon Temple complex in the erstwhile Juan Velez property in Lahug. Both places even look like they have the same palm specie planted. The funny thing is, instead of complementing the Spanish Fort San Pedro, the erstwhile Spanish plaza now blends with the American Malacanang sa Sugbo, the old customs house renovated by Gloria Arroyo and now abandoned by Pnoy. If that was their intention, then, they've succeeded. It doesn't have that old eclectic mix I used to find amusing and interesting whenever I was in the place.

Of course, the plaza now looks clean, functional, modern, utilitarian, useful. But where did the Spanish plaza go, Mayor? Perhaps, buried under the rubble of the tunnel construction? And we thought, only pre-Spanish artifacts were reduced to shards to be displayed in situ style at the Museo Sugbo.

BUSINESS | Postwar economic players

Unlike in the 19th century when Cebu City's export economy created wealth for the elite comprised of the Parian Mestizos and the Chinese, the post- war export economy couldn't do the same for an even bigger city population many of whom were less entrepreneurial. With lessened export players at the port in the 1950s and 1960s wealth was not as well dispersed as in the 19th century. But there slowly rose a new middle class among enterprising as well as better-educated Cebuanos and Filipino-Chinese not dependent on the export trade.

           It wasn't until the 1960s that real manufacturing was developed in the city. “No real Manufacturing district had developed prior to 1960, though fabrication and agricultural-processing activities were increasing.” (Wernstedt, Spencer, 1967)

            New players like the Filipino-Chinese infused new dynamism to the city's economy as did their countrymen in centuries past. They led in the creation of new wealth among the city's lower and middle classes in the postwar period. In the years to come they, too, would constitute the city's elite. But unlike the Chinese mestizos of Parian, many of them would remain faithful to their traditions.

HISTORY | A Chartered City and Provincial Capital

Cebu reached an important milestone on Feb. 24, 1937 when it became a chartered city, finally putting to rest the issue of its status as Ciudad during the Spanish colonial period and a municipality during the early years of American occupation. Its 128.3 square mile area included “some 75 square miles of rural, agricultural hill country.” (Wernstedt, Spencer,1967)

Vicente Rama, a self-made politician sponsored the bill that made it a city despite opposition against his bill by fellow Cebuano assemblymen Rafols and Abellana in the Philippine Assembly. On October 20, 1936, Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon signed it into law despite pleadings against it by the Cebu Provincial Council led by Osmeña ally, Governor Sotero Cabahug, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Cebu. Rama later served as mayor of Cebu City after it became a chartered city1.

The cityhood was apparently a Quezon and Rama handiwork.

During its birth as a chartered city in 1937, Cebu City also assumed a dual role as the capital of the Province of Cebu. In that same year, construction of the Cebu Provincial Capitol building in the city began. Ironically, as a chartered city, it is not within the jurisdiction of the province. “The act of chartering a city removes it from the control of the provincial government and places it under presidential administration.” (Wernstedt, Spencer,1967)

1Fr. Rudy Villanueva, The Vicente Rama Reader: An Introduction for Modern Readers, Ateneo de Manila Press, Quezon City, 2003, p. 99

URBAN PLAN | Moving the urban center

Cebu City reaffirmed it is Southern Philippines' premier city after the end of the Marcos regime and some five decades after the end of world war 2. 


Lito Osmeña, first Cebu Grovernor after Marcos left, made tremendous impact on the city, although, he never served as chief executive, just like his grandfather, Pres. Sergio Osmena. His conversion of non-productive provincial lots, into real estate ventures during his lone term as governor from 1988-1991, paved the way for Cebu City's radical transformation.

To fund infrastructure projects in the province, the provincial government which owned a five-hectare property in Banilad, entered into a joint venture with Ayala Land, Inc. and formed the Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corporation (CPVDC), the first of its kind in the country. With land as its equity contribution, the province owned 74.8 percent of CPVDC, the first purely corporate venture by a Local Government Unit in the country.

Osmeña stirred Cebuano pride with Ceboom. Both an economic phe­nomenon and a marketing driver, Lito Osmeña gave a new face to the promdi image. He came out on national television and marketed Cebu or Cebu Equity BondUnits, the first such move by any Local Government Unit (LGU).

The partnership with Ayala land moved the urban center from the historical yet decaying port to Cebu Business Park and I.T. Park in the erstwhile unproductive golf course and airport in Banilad and Lahug. The conversion made the area the city's prime real estate and most modern urban development. In 1990, Cebu City incorporated Cebu Business Park development features in its zoning ordinance.

Before the Asian Financial Crisis hit the country, the provincial government under Pablo Garcia was able to sell the province's share to Ayala Land, Inc raising some P1 Billion. The crisis caused the development of the Cebu Business Park (where the golf course was) to come to a halt for years.

The recovery was slow but steady. Years later, Cebu City would recover from the crisis and experience another era of unprecedented growth which continues to this day.

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The Terraces in Ayala Center Cebu (above), recognized for outstanding achievement in marketing and design development from the International Council of Shopping Centers. It is Cebu City's favorite hangout. It's great for nightlife with a variety of shops, bars, cafes, delis and restaurants.

HISTORY | Failure to Industrialize: Root of our Underdevelopment

Despite the frenzy of construction, numerous infrastructure projects and the amount of public spending poured into Cebu City during the American colonial period upon instigation of Sergio Osmeña, Cebu City's economy actually slowed down as compared to that of the 19th Century. This was due to disruptions in world trade as a consequence of wars and the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Philippine economy remained basically agricultural, Cebu included for “although the Americans supported public works, they inhibited economic development through tax schemes designed to protect US commerce.” (Larkin, 1982)

Cebu City never moved beyond exporting raw materials and importing finished products during the American colonial period. It only supplied the United States with the agricultural goods it needed and failed to diversify and industrialize. That will remain so in the years to come. “When the frontier century came to a close, the Philippines had erected its modern social and economic structures, and from that time on has had to live with consequences.” (Larkin, 1982)

ECONOMY | Expanding the city: the South Reclamation Project

After Tommy Osmena's successful return to City Hall in 2002, he once again oversaw the development of the South Reclamation Project which, by then, had drawn a lot of criticism. With the loan ballooning due to the Asian Financial Crisis, Osmeña's critics in the media accused the city government of sacrificing basic services for debt servicing.

Long after the SRP was finished in 2006, it remained empty for years until it made its major breakthrough with an outright sale and a joint venture deal made with the Filinvest Group of Andrew Gotianun, Sr., descendants of Pedro Gotiaoco's brother Goquiaoco. FilInvest Land, Inc. made a P348 Million down payment on March 9, 2009. This was followed by another deal closed with Henry Sy's Shoemart in 2009 amounting to some P3 Billion payable every quarter until 2016.

The original plan for the SRP was to make it a light industrial park. It is accredited with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as a Special Economic Zone. Alvin Garcia said the Japanese government would not have funded it if the present development was the one presented.

But he also acknowledged that the rise of China as a world manufacturing giant made the plan untenable as several years after the SRP was completed in 2006, there were still no locators prompting the city government to change their strategy and turn it into a mixed-land use facility.

LITERATURE | Not so rosy picture of the Mestizos: a page from an unpublished book

Known as pacto de retroventa, the Parian Mestizos lent money to Indio farmers when they needed it or if they didn't, convinced them into borrowing. But since Spanish law limited the Indio's debt to twenty-five pesos, in order to give a bigger amount, the Mestizo would buy the land granting the Indio an option to repurchase later. Practically, the Mestizo became landowner and the Indio mere tenant of his own land. When the Indio had the money to repurchase the land, the Mestizo would often say, "Unya na lang na Noy. Diha lang usa na imong kwarta."

Growing up in Minglanilla, I heard the story of Noy Liloy who died in the middle of the field he was tilling one noontime under the sweltering heat of the sun, his hand holding on to his plow. He had a heart attack thinking about what the Mestizo-Sangley money lender had told him earlier that day. He told him the land he was tilling was no longer his.

Forced to borrow money for the care of a man he had injured, Noy Liloy entered into a pacto de retroventa deal. But when he had the money to pay off his debt, the money lender won't take it and kept saying, "Unya na lang na Noy. Diha lang usa na imong kwarta."

Noy Liloy's descedants stayed on some of the land claimed by the moneylender, entering into a long court battle that saw all their money spent and properties sold to pay for a legal battle they were ignorant of. As expected, the moneylender won the case in court.

Noy Liloy's son cried when his house was demolished to enforce the court's decision. Never expecting it would happen, he had to be carried away from the site. That night, he and his family slept on a makeshift, roofless house, near the ricefields which a sympathetic friend offered to them. His son sobbed himself to sleep.

Shortly after, Noy Liloy's son died. Few weeks after, his wife too, died; their children orphaned.

LITERATURE | Cebuano Miguel Syjuco talks to Time magazine

Reposted from Time magazine

In Spanish, Ilustrado means "enlightened one." During the 19th century, it referred to the Philippines' Europe-educated literati, whose revolutionary ideas helped establish the foundations for Asia's first democracy. Fast-forward 200 years: expatriate Filipino author Miguel Syjuco has put a modern spin on this dated term with his 2008 Man Asia Literary Prize–winning novel Ilustrado. Syjuco's novel follows the exploits of a young Filipino protagonist — also named Miguel Syjuco — who returns to the Philippines and the past he left behind to investigate the death of his dissident mentor Crispin Salvador. This satire of Philippine society comes at a time when this Southeast Asian nation stands at a political crossroads. Born into a well-to-do political family himself, Syjuco is not unfamiliar with the elite class he parodies, but he is quick to point out the differences between himself and his fictional namesake. During his whirlwind Asian promotional tour, Syjuco spoke with TIME in Hong Kong about the power of the written word and his transnational exploits as a modern-day Ilustrado.

How was your return to the Philippines? Was it a big homecoming for you?
It was. I saw friends who I haven't seen in a decade, in many cases. I spoke at my alma mater, the Ateneo. I saw all these teachers who, quite rightly, are surprised that I ever did something, got anywhere with my life. I surprise myself that I'm not dead in the gutter somewhere, surprised that I haven't given up.(See pictures of the 2009 politically driven massacre in the Philippines.)

What drove you to leave to begin with?
I left to pursue my education as a creative writer. I studied in New York. I fell in love with an Australian-born, half-Filipina girl. So we moved to Australia when she went to her university and I moved with her. We moved to Montreal because she was going to take her year abroad and I wanted to see if I could keep on writing there. It's really hard to make it as a writer in the Philippines. But I also wanted to see if I could make it on my own. I wanted to live in a place where nobody knew my last name and didn't ask where I went to school. I wanted to get by on my own merit. As many young men and women do, they have to leave home, leave their parents — their loving parents — and strike out on their own to prove themselves.

In Ilustrado, the protagonist is named Miguel Syjuco. Why did you name him after yourself?
The Miguel Syjuco character is not me. I wanted him to represent my own fears and frustrations and guilt, my own worst tendencies and my optimistic expectations. He's a cautionary tale for me. But he's also an examination of the darkest things that haunt me as a person. I named him after me because I think it keeps the reader a little bit more engaged and wondering what's real and what's not. And that's a good thing.(See the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people.)

What is your writing process like? How do you motivate yourself to fill the page?
I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs to pay the bills. I worked as a copy editor. I was a medical guinea pig. I was an eBay power seller of ladies' handbags. I was an assistant to a bookie at the horse races. I bartended. I did anything I could to make ends meet. And those to me were hobbies that paid money, because my main job, even if it didn't pay any money, was creative writing. So I'd wake up, and I'd go straight to my desk, and I'd work until I couldn't work anymore. I feel like an overworked executive trying to make a promotion. I think that's how writers have to do it. I think of the romance novelist Nora Roberts. Her philosophy is pared down to three words: butt in chair. So I stick my behind in my office chair in front of my computer and just work.

That must take a lot of discipline.
Discipline and desperation, I guess. And delusion.

As a diasporic author, did you feel any pressure representing your mother country?
I'm a Filipino. I'm nothing else but a Filipino. I'd like to be a writer, not just defined by race. The book deals with those issues — the guilt and the sense of purpose and wondering if what you are doing is right or wrong. But I think that's natural. I think that anyone living abroad would feel that way. And if you were living at home, you'd be feeling other things. So I guess I am a diasporic writer. If you ask me, I'm just a dude who sits at his desk and writes as best he can. And everything else is just subsets of that.

It was Jessica Hagedorn who once told me, "Don't just try to be a Filipino writer. Try to be a writer." The beauty about being a writer is that you put yourself in other people's shoes. You imagine the lives of your characters. My writing changed after she told me that. It stopped being so angry and militantly nationalistic. I stopped trying to explain the Philippines, or I stopped trying to prove everybody wrong about the preconceptions and misconceptions that they have about Filipinos. I started just focusing on the story. The book is about the Philippines, but it's about the Philippines that I've created within the context of the novel. So it's a real place, but it is a work of fiction.

With the elections happening, your novel comes at an important time for the Philippines. Did you plan this release purposefully?
Yes, I pushed my publishers to do it. They're wonderful. They listened, and they understand how important this is. I wanted it to come out before the elections. It's funny — as I was revising it this last year, a lot of the things that go on in the book seem to have happened. It seems prescient almost. And I thought at first, "Well, why is this? Am I just ripping off? Am I Nostradamus here?" But no, I think it's really just because the Philippines is in a cycle of constantly recurring problems and issues that we have never really solved. That's why I'm able to write about these things in the book, because they're just constantly recurring. And hopefully now that I've articulated them, put them down, people can read about them. Now we can see them a little bit more clearly and maybe turn our eye towards discussing solutions.

So you believe that words can create change?
I think every writer at their heart believes that when they sit down and write, they can do something meaningful with their work and they can incite change. It's what keeps us writing. Well, maybe some writers do it for the money, but I certainly am not. But I have no illusions about the idea or even the possibility that my book will come out and all of a sudden everybody's going to vote properly and they're going to change the country and they're going to get rid of all the corruption. It's not going to happen.

Do you have hope for the future of the Philippines?
Yes. I believe change will come from the grass-roots level. I don't think we have a Barack Obama who can inspire the people and really lead them to change. We're a fractured society, and I think that change will come from organizing the people who can benefit most from change and helping them help themselves. But again, I'm just a writer. I don't know much about politics.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1988430,00.html#ixzz1NUFwmgdf

TOURISM | World's 7th Best Island Destination

Cebu has been adjudged by the Conde Nast travel magazine as the 7th best island destination in the world in an elite list that include Maldives, Bali, Phuket, Seychelles, Koh Samui, Mauritius and Langkawi.

The island's hotels and resorts include such world renown names in the business such as Marriott, Shangri-la, Hilton, Marco Polo, Harolds, Waterfront and Radisson and local names that give equally excellent services and facilities such as Plantation Bay, Parklane, Costabella, Maribago, Crown Regency, Montebello, Fortuna, Midtown, Elizabeth and Paragon, to name a few.

PROFILE | Monique Lhuillier

Monique Llhuillier dresses top Hollywood celebs. Winner of the 2001 Glamorous Bridal Designer Award, the 2002 Avant Garde Bridal Designer Award and the 2003 Designer of the Year Award from Wedding Dresses Magazine, she is one of Hollywood's favorite fashion designers.

Born In Cebu City to socialite mother Amparito and Jeweler father, Michel Lhuiller, she studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), where she met her husband, Tom Bugbee.

She was one of Penshoppes' original print models back in the 1980s. She grew up in Cebu City where her family owns a chain of pawnshops which carries the family name. Of French and Cebuano descent, Monique's French last name means "oilmaker.”

Having had a difficult time finding a gown she likes during her wedding, Lhuillier, decided to begin sketching her own line of dresses. Her husband thought it was nothing more than a hobby, one that she would tire of soon enough. "He thought I had the wedding blues and eventually I’d get over it,” she told USA Weekend Magazine.

Lhuillier and her husband founded their company in 1996 and launched their first bridal collection. The line was well-received by fashion-savvy brides, editors, and celebrities. She eventually, made the news with two high-profile celebrity weddings in a row. She designed Christine Baumgartner’s wedding dress for the fall 2004 wedding to Kevin Costner right after designing Britney Spears’s wedding dress for her wedding to Kevin Federline.

She also designed the wedding gown of former US Vice President and former Second Lady Al and Tipper Gore’s youngest daughter, Sarah G. Lee, during her marriage to Bill Lee.

Lhuillier later added evening wear to her line, and several of her works were worn by hollywood celebs and paraded prominently on red carpets during awards nights.


Read about Miguel Syjuco here.

INSIGHT | Nurturing the Cebuano Soul

Despite what her critics say, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia's contribution to Cebu's culture and heritage is unprecedented.

Just the facts: With her imprimatur and support, the provincial government commissioned the University of San Carlos History Department to pool together Cebuano writers to write a definitive history of the province, all its cities and towns, including the capital, Cebu City. She also threw her full support in the archaeological endeavors of USC professor Jojo Bersales in his pioneering archaeological diggings that is slowly piecing together the unwritten prehistoric story of the island, long before the coming of the Europeans. Today, all over, the island, in almost every town, there is a museum topbilled by the Museo Sugbo or the Cebu Provincial Museum in Cebu City.

FOCUS | Kenneth Cobonpue

For Cebuano businessmen, doing business with the world should no longer be limited to trading and manufacturing. The rise of China as the world's manufacturing behemoth has wiped out competition from small players like the Philippines, prompting the likes of Kennenth Cobonpue to focus more on superior design tosurvive in the market. Cobonpue exemplifies Cebuano adaptability, resilience and survival instincts. He became a celebrity in the world of design after Brad Pitt and other hollywood stars bought his creations.

An ICT Boom

The rise of China as a manufacturing behemoth and the Asian financial crisis led then mayor Alvin Garcia to look for alternatives . His administration saw a silver lining in the emerging global ICT industry. He convened an ICT summit in preparation for the anticipated boom of ICT-related industries and enabled services. He wanted to pattern Cebu City's economic development after Bangalore in India. He later organized the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information technology or CEDFIT meant to prepare schools for ICT-enabled industries and services

Shortly after Tommy Osmena's successful return as mayor, the Business Process Outsourcing or BPO industry boomed. Today, there is a scramble for office spaces in the city mostly by ICT-enabled companies. The city is on a construction boom unparalleled throughout its history as new buildings are constructed all over the city.

Cebu City a-changin'

Cebu City is a city in transition. It is a city busy reinventing itself. All around the metropolis, new buildings have risen . Lately, Cebu City was ranked as the number one among the Top 50 Emerging Outsourcing Cities in the World besting other cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Hanoi, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Ho Chi Minh City. At least 17 Busi­ness Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are presently doing business in the city occupying some 80,000 square meters of office space. As the industry con­tinues to expand, so does the demand for space. Above are photos of Cebu's IT Park, home to Cebu's BPO companies.