The CCCI (Cebu Chamber & Commerce Inc.) and SWAC (Spa & Wellness Association of Cebu) held a Beauty Health & Wellness Show 2006 on September 22-24,2006 at the SM Trade Hall. Its theme is “NOW Cebu” or Nirvana of Wellness Cebu

At the Ribbon Cutting Scene to formally open the exhibit

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CASA GORORDO IN CEBU reopened recently after being closed for a year for extensive conservation work.

Casa Gorordo Museum is one of Cebu’s premier attractions, visited by an unending stream of tourists and students. But its popularity was double-edged.The numerous tour groups stressed out the structure. Parts of the structure, not designed to accommodate the weight of too many people walking about, had begun to sag.

Water had also begun to seep into the ground-floor coral stone walls, the dampness seriously weakening the stones. More…

CEBU Pacific (CEB), the country’s low fare leader, will commence its Cebu-Clark service starting on October 12, 2006, for an introductory seat sale of only P99 one-way.

Cebu City (20 September) — The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through its Canadian Executive Service Organization-Business Advisory Project (CESO-BAP), wants to focus its funding assistance to small and medium enterprises in Cebu this year.

CESO-BAP country project manager, Tim Moiket said, “In the seven years of operation, the project has been focusing on SMEs in other provinces in Central Visayas, except Cebu. We wanted to focus then on provinces that were lagging behind. So we concentrated in Oriental Negros, Bohol and Siquijor because we felt that the SMEs in Cebu were already developed. But this time, CESO-BAP will focus on assisting SMEs in Cebu.” CESO-BAP is asking manufacturers and exporters in Cebu to link with the SMEs in other provinces through outsourcing and sub-contracting, Moiket added. More…

Cebu City (20 September) -— “In business today, franchising is the name of the game. It will make you rich, and even a billionaire,” thus said Samie Lim, chairman emeritus of the Philippine Franchising Association (PFA) during the 1st Franchise Conference and Expo 2006 held recently in Cebu.

Zorayda Amalia Alonso, Dept of Trade and Industry (DTI) undersecretary challenged the Cebuanos to seriously consider franchising business as Filipinos are now beginning to embrace the franchising evolution business. More…

Cebu (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Cebu-based shipbuilding company Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Cebu Inc. (THICI) has made a commitment to invest US$100 million or roughly P5 billion in the expansion of its shipyard in Balamban town in Cebu’s western seaboard.

THICI, a joint venture between Japan’s Tsuneishi Corp., one of the world’s leading shipbuilders, and Aboitiz and Co., has been building 58,000 deadweight-ton (dwt) bulk carriers since 1995. More…

Cebu City (18 September) — Stakeholders and players in Cebu’s tourism industry had decided to form into a coalition to fast track the industry’s developments and to establish a niche in the tourism hubs in other parts of Asia.

This developed as the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines , Peter Sutherland told the various tourism-related groups in Cebu that the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is willing to provide technical assistance to Cebu’s tourism industry through its PEARL 2 program (Private Enterprises Accelerated Linkages 2) saying further, “But the industry must organize first and apply for assistance as one.” More…

A DELEGATION of information technology companies from Cebu will be in San Francisco this week to market the island’s call center and business process outsourcing services, government officials said.

“Cebu is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing economic areas of the Philippines and it has successfully positioned itself as a primary trade and investment destination,” said Special Trade representative Maria Roseni Alvero. More…

The media in Cebu, one of the most vibrant in the country, celebrate the 12th edition of Press Freedom Week beginning today.

The celebration, the only one of its kind being celebrated in the country, takes on greater importance and urgency this year, coming on the heels of escalating violence against journalists that has earned for the Philippines the ignominious tag of being the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists after Iraq. More…

MY being a true-blue Cebuano is really not the reason for writing this piece about my province during our celebration of History Week. It is more on the matter of the island-province featuring either by coincidence or by the act of Divine Providence in the ascent of the archipelago from just being any group of islands in the Pacific to sovereign nationhood. Just thinking of how Cebu was there from the very start can sort of raise gooseflesh in us Cebuanos.

But at the risk of being melodramatic, it is best to stick to historical truths. First, that before our country became the Philippines, the initial step toward that end was made in Cebu. A man named Magellan came to the island, claimed it as colony for the Spanish Crown, introduced Catholicism to the people, left the image of Santo Niño in the hand of a maiden, for which Cebu is now famous for. More…

Cebu City (15 September) — As anticipation mounts up in covering the most-awaited international event of the country which Cebu is privilege to host, a forum dubbed “The Asean Challenge” is set next week as part of the weeklong activities of the Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration Sept. 17-23.

Press Usec. Rolly Reyes and Foreign Affairs Asst. Sec. Domingo Lucenario are invited as resource persons for the forum. Reyes is expected to talk on media guidelines and protocol including how media can get accreditation for the summit coverage as well as how media can do a good job in covering the big stories that matter in the upcoming summit in December. More…

Cebu City (13 September) — Cebu City and Pilar town in Cebu province were adjudged as the most child-friendly LGUs in a recently concluded Regional Search for Child Friendly Cities and Municipalities for 2005.

The Regional Sub-Committee for the Welfare of Children (RSCWC) in Central Visayas bared the results of the evaluation recently. The Municipality of Pilar , Cebu won as the Most Child Friendly Municipality in the 4th to 6th class municipality category. The Municipalities of Catigbian in Bohol and Dauin in Oriental Negros were also nominated in that category. More…