User Rating: 3 / 5
Firmly believing that the municipality of Liloan is a “sleeping giant,” more investment opportunities are now being eyed as a number of residents from Metro Cebu are relocating while housing developers and other investors operate their businesses in the area.
“Liloan is a sleeping giant; we presently have a lot of home developments in the area and industries are coming in as well,” shared Liloan Mayor Vincent Franco “Duke” D. Frasco in an interview during the north leg of the OTOP familiarization tour.
With Liloan’s growing residents, Frasco is seeing the grave demand to provide infrastructure support and facilities such as public market, sports and leisure center as well as commercial establishments such as shopping centers that can cater to the immediate needs of the residents so there won’t be a need to travel down to the city.
“There are several housing developments emerging in Liloan now and majority of these residents are composed of either workers or students in the city. Aside from living in Liloan, we also want them to spend some of their time here,” said Frasco.
As for investors, Frasco said that Liloan has not only been able to attract real estate developers but also industries like manufacturing as Sheldan, an air freshener company operates in the area. A boat building company also recently showed interest to expand their operation in the area to be nearer to the seashore.
“Whoever wants to invest here in Liloan is welcome. As an LGU we are very supportive to any type of investments that can spur development to our municipality,” said Frasco.
Liloan’s one-town-one-product is rosquillos and Frasco said that this industry has been in town for more than a century that even without government support it has surpassed the test of time.
“Rosquillos has been around Liloan for over 100 years than any other product and it has provided generations of livelihood to our people. We particularly chose this product as it has became synonymous to Liloan and people from all over the country even abroad has recognized us because of that,” he said.
Frasco’s family also operates Titay’s Liloan Rosquillos and Delicacies, Inc. which has been in operation for more than a hundred years already and is one of the major players in Liloan’s rosquillos industry.
With the province’s growing local economy, Frasco is determined to bring Liloan at par with the rest of Cebu’s other municipalities to contribute to its growth by providing the facilities needed to achieve development.
“Cebu is fast growing and Liloan has to catch up with its developments to attract companies to invest here and we will need social infrastructure to be able to do that,” Frasco pointed out.
To achieve this goal, Frasco said that 26% of their development fund will be used for infrastructure development and in the fourth quarter of this year, they will be starting with the construction of their 2-hectare proposed public market project that will have a terminal and a sports facility.
“I always tell people that Liloan is a diamond in a rock and it needs polishing for it to become a thriving municipality and hopefully become one of the great cities in the province of Cebu,” he stressed. ~http://www.philstar.com