ON THEIR first day in the 19th Congress, Cebu City’s two solons filed bills to establish the Mega Cebu Development Authority (MCDA).North District Rep. Rachel Marguerite “Cutie” del Mar and South District Rep. Eduardo Rama told SunStar Cebu Friday, July 1, 2022, that they had filed separate measures for the creation of the MCDA.According to Rama, he had not seen the version of del Mar, but he would coordinate with her so the bill would be enacted into law.Rama’s and del Mar’s bills have the same title, “An act creating the Mega Cebu Development Authority, prescribing its functions and duties, and providing funds therefore.”Rama said he would also file a bill to create additional legislative districts in Cebu City, but the congressman said he would provide the details once the bill was pushed.Meanwhile, del Mar also filed 12 bills that focused on the mass transport system, infrastructure, freedom of information, and barangay affairs.Del Mar’s House Bill (HB) 82 aims to “strengthen the right of citizens to information held by the government,” while HB 139 provides for “the venue of the criminal and civil action in libel cases against community journalists, publications or broadcast stations.”The congresswoman will also push for the construction of a light or metro rail transport system or monorail transport system in Cebu City as stipulated in her HBs 134 and 135.Through HB 140, del Mar also seeks the construction of a circumferential road from Cebu City’s north district to the south district.Del Mar also filed HB 136 that seeks to provide for the “construction of skyway overpass and tunnel underpass under the three most congested road sections in the first district of Cebu City.”Other bills del Mar filed were HB 128, which would allow and regulate the use of motorcycles as public utility vehicles; HB 141, which would convert four barangay road sections into national roads; and HB 138, which would “provide for the establishment and construction by the Cebu Port Authority of an additional international container terminal.”For barangay affairs, del Mar’s HB 82 aims to establish the magna carta for barangays, while HB 133 provides amendments to certain sections of the law which postponed the 2020 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.The congresswoman will also push for the renaming of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport to Lapu-Lapu City International Airport through her HB 137.