december-2011

For starters, the changing professional
landscape has turned the once
sleepy urban center to an all-day,
all-night, “open 24 hours” city ready
to accommodate more diversifi ed
lifestyles — including those of a growing
population of call center employees,
multinational expats, and foreign buyers
who breeze in and out of town for Cebu’s
design and manufacturing industries.
Where once shops and malls would bar
its glass doors shut shortly after twilight,
and later at seven in the evening, the
city is now constantly abuzz with all
kinds of activities.
It has become the kind of city that’s
the end point in itself rather than a
launching pad to better pastures. One of
the local entrepreneurs, Joel Binamira,
offers further insight: Cebu has always
been the educational hub of the
Visayas and Mindanao, with students
fl ocking to its large universities who
then seek employment in either Metro
Manila or abroad. “Now, however, they
can stay here,” Joel explains. “They
can be employed in Cebu.”
A stronger workforce often translates
C EBU IN THE SPOTLIGHT
to a robust local economy, and in recent
years the most obvious telltale sign
of growth has been the Asiatown IT
Park, a mixed-use business complex
that houses, among others, several
multinational call centers.
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But the more subtle aspects of
Cebu’s new cosmopolitan fl avor are
the most interesting; underneath the
deliberate shiny new packaging are all
the things Cebu has come to be known
and loved for.
From top:
The New
Bridge spans
the Mactan
Channel,
connecting
Mactan Island
to the mainland;
Joel Binamira
works the
roasting pit
of Zubuchon
lechon, one of
the city’s best.