■ MINGLANILLA BIZ CHAMBER INSTALLS FIRST PRESIDENT
New chamber will try to encourage investors to start or expand their businesses in Minglanilla to ease traffic to Cebu City; mayor says bypass road plan is moving forward Town ranked 184th (out of 1,245) in infrastructure in the Cities and Municipalities
Minglanilla Cebu Business Chamber president Filomena Cañedo took oath over the weekend as the first president of the newly formed chamber. Cañedo, now 61 years old, said she will lead a pro-active business sector that will be a partner with the local government in addressing issues like traffic and unemployment, pressing issues in the town. Cañedo is active in the real estate business, both in residential and memorial gardens, with the Paramount Property Ventures and Legacy Plains Development Corp., respectively.
As the first president of the new Minglanilla, Cebu Business Chamber, Filomena Cañedo pledged to lead a more proactive business sector that will work with the local government in addressing the town’s most pressing issues, like traffic and unemployment. Cañedo, 61, took oath last Saturday. Instead of merely complaining, “this time we want business to contribute ideas to the local government unit (LGU),” she said at the sidelines during the induction and oath-taking of the chamber held in the Fonte de Versailles clubhouse, one of Cañedo’s residential projects. For now, 20 companies belong to the chamber.
She is the chief executive officer of Cañedo Equity Ventures, which includes residential developer Paramount Property Ventures and memorial park developer Legacy Plains Development Corp.
One of the most pressing issues Minglanilla faces is traffic congestion that has been affecting both business and workers, she emphasized.
The town ranked 184th in infrastructure in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index in 2016 of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), and 10th in “economic dynamism” out of the 1,245 municipalities ranked.
Part of the traffic solution, according to Cañedo, is to encourage investors to start or expand their businesses in Minglanilla. That way, the town’s residents need not travel all the way to Cebu City. With more jobs available locally, unemployment will also be addressed, which the business leader expects would lower the crime rate.
The proposed 100-hectare Ming-Mori Reclamation and Industrial Park, a light industrial and commercial estate, is projected to generate 75,000 jobs in Minglanilla and its neighboring towns in southern Cebu.
Connecting firms, workers
Aside from addressing unemployment, Cañedo also plans for the chamber to craft a database of the talent supply in Minglanilla, which the business organization can use to help match workers with employers.
“I know it’s very ambitious. But if the business chamber won’t do anything about it, the situation won’t change,” she said.
On the part of the local government of Minglanilla, Mayor Elanito Peña said the plan to build a bypass road on the old Minglanilla railway is progressing and has been approved by the Provincial Development Council.
“We will submit it next to the RDC (Regional Development Council) and NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority),” Peña said.
The bypass road in Minglanilla will be five kilometers long, going through Barangays Tungkil, Calajoan, Tungkop, and Tulay, and is intended to be an alternative route to connect Talisay City, Minglanilla, and the City of Naga.
Rep. Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas (Cebu Province, first district) said he is supportive of the bypass road and will help lobby for its implementation.