MORE local support from the provincial governments of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon are needed to lobby for the passage of the bill creating Metro Cagayan de Oro, Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya said on Wednesday.

“I’m calling on the provincial councils of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon and the councils of the municipalities and component cities to support the plan of (National Economic Development Authority) to pass their resolutions calling on their legislators to pass the Metropolitan Cagayan de Oro bill in Congress,” said Nacaya in Visayan.

During the program ‘Ang Inyong Konseho Karon’ hosted by the City Information Office, Nacaya said the government’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP) mandated the creation of Metropolitan Cagayan de Oro by 2025.

Metro Cagayan de Oro includes towns in eastern and western Misamis Oriental province, and northern Bukidnon province.

DIVERSIFIED, EXPANDED GROWTH UNDER METRO ORO. Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya called on the Provincial Capitol of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon towns covered under Metro Cagayan de Oro to pass resolutions supporting its creation in Congress. CIO photo grab

Councilor Nacaya, who chairs the 20th City Council’s committee on planning, research, innovation and peoples’ organizations, said officials of the Neda regional office recently met with the City Council for updates on the city government’s metropolization lobbying efforts.

Metropolization of Cagayan de Oro is included in the RISE development agenda of Mayor Rolando Uy’s administration.

Through the creation of a metropolitan Cagayan de Oro as the fourth urban growth center in the country and the first in northern Mindanao, Nacaya said economic growth and development will be diversified and expanded in Cagayan de Oro City and the towns and cities included under Metro Cagayan de Oro.

He said the city and its neighbors should avoid repeating the experience of Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.

“Under the Local Government Code, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental province are planning their own development agenda separately. To each their own….Let’s avoid what is being experienced in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu where they have yet to craft their own plans to resolve traffic in their areas now despite (being having undergone metropolization year before),” he said in Visayan. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)