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CEBU CITY—Cebu
businessmen reiterated their role in supporting
anticorruption drives and in promoting business for
smaller entrepreneurs in response to critical comments
made by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña on Tuesday.
Osmeña
also urged Cebu businessmen in making sure foreign
investors feel confident about the country.
The
mayor’s message was in contrast to the rather
celebratory mood of the more than 100 business and
community leaders at the plush Cebu City Sports Club
during the launching of the Cebu Business Month (CBM),
organized annually by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.
The
mayor cited the “deficiencies” of
Cebu’s business sector over the past years, saying they “stayed
quiet” while those in neighboring
Lapu-Lapu City stood up and fought alleged corruption in
the local government.
“You,
the chamber, should develop a reputation of standing up
for what is right and just,” Osmeña said. He added that
the chamber should adopt programs that would bring
benefits not only to its members but smaller businessmen
as well.
“We
should be careful in protecting the gains that we have
achieved,” he said.
The
chamber, through a statement Wednesday, said it
appreciates and “regards with respect and resoluteness
the statements” made by the mayor.
The
businessmen said they supported the filing of charges
against Lapu-Lapu City officials while “exhorting
agencies of the government tasked to investigate and
adjudicate the cases to unearth the truth, penalize the
guilty and absolve the innocent with utmost expediency.”
“To
date, we are still vigilant over the development of
cases and shall support all moves that affirm
transparency, accountability and honesty in conducting
the affairs of the state,” the statement read.
The
statement also said the chamber, in effect, brings
business not only to their members but also to everybody
in
Cebu through trade missions abroad and through the CBM.
The
chamber is also espousing corporate social
responsibility among its members, the statement added.
Gov.
Gwendolyn Garcia on Tuesday committed P2 million for the
CBM celebrations this year. She also pledged P1 million
more for programs that would develop products of Cebu’s
smaller towns.
“We are
very lucky to be in an unprecedented era of unparalleled
growth and development,” she said.
“We are
in the place where the Philippine history, as we know
it, started, and perhaps the place where the
Philippines
can begin again.”
Governor
Garcia and Mayor Osmeña are having a public quarrel over
a botched land-swap deal between the city and the
provincial government. The two chief executives sat one
table away from each other during Tuesday’s event but
greeted and shook hands as the governor went out of the
hall.
CBM is
regarded as Cebu’s “business festival” to feature Cebu’s
resources and business potential while making an avenue
for business to flourish. For years now, CBM has focused
on information and communications technology, tourism
and entrepreneurship.
CBM 2008
chairperson Tess Chan said the event set in June is
expected to surpass last year’s 8,000 delegates.
Among
CBM’s side events will be the Cebu Tourism Congress, the
Go Negosyo Congress, the First Cebu Open Source Summit
and the Cebu ICT Congress. |
