CEBU CITY, Philippines – Ormoc City Mayor Richard Gomez said that he would like college students to consider staying here to help develop the growing city.

“I encourage a lot of our youth who are studying here to stay in Ormoc and help us develop this place,” Gomez said in a recent Rappler talk interview. (WATCH: Rappler Talk: 100 days into 2nd term, Richard Gomez means business in Ormoc City)

City hall itself gives hiring preference to students from Ormoc who graduate with honors.

Among the colleges in Ormoc are Eastern Visayas State University, STI College Ormoc, AMA Computer College, Western Leyte College, Santo Niño College, among others.



“I want them to stay in our city to work because the opportunity is here now and it will be easier for them to stay with their families and not be displaced when they work outside of Ormoc,” Gomez told Rappler in a separate text message. 


The city goverment’s PESO (public employment service office), helped match companies with potential local talent. 



Companies who go to PESO for help, Gomez said, are requested to allocate 70% of their workforce to those who are from Ormoc.


Helping young Ormocanons get jobs, the 2nd-term mayor said, is an important part of the economic development of his city.

Among his goals for this term is to improve the investment climate in his city, located in one of the poorest regions in the Philippines.

“Although the business in Ormoc is doing much better than the time I started. We’re still hoping that will increase,” Gomez said. 



Among the businesses he is wooing to invest in the city are hotels, retail, restaurants, tourism-related businesses and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. 



According to a report in The Freeman, Gomez already asked service provider PLDT to improve fibr internet service and LTE signal in Ormoc City to help them attract BPO companies to locate in the area. 



Gomez highlighted during the interview that the land area of Ormoc City is about the same size of Metro Manila with much less people at a little over 610 square kilometers.



“There are about 11 million people living in one area [in Metro Manila]. And Ormoc City, as compared to Metro Manila, we almost have the same land area. Metro Manila – more than 11 million. Diri sa amo, (Here in our place) more than 230,000 lang,” he said. 


Gomez said he wanted to avoid making the mistakes of bigger cities in more developed areas.


Careful land-use development, he said, was another priority to ensure that the city’s environment remained clean, while the the city’s economy was developing.


“Well we’re very careful about development in Ormoc, especially putting up subdivisions. I really want to make sure that the [new] subdivisions that will be put up in Ormoc will have a common sewage system,” Gomez said.


According to a report in SunStar, Cebu City, the economic center of the Visayas, has no official sewage and waste-water treatment facility. 


While business has been improving, Gomez said. He pegs growth targets in his city at 30% in the next 3 to 5 years. 

He said he hoped young people would help him achieve this target. “We need them to help us improve our city, no one can help us but ourselves,” he said. – Rappler.com