CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – This city will soon have a center again where people can more easily raise their concerns in terms of security and ask for government assistance.


CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy and Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez spearhead the groundbreaking and capsule-laying ceremony of Phase 1 of the Divisoria Redevelopment Project, including the establishment of the new OKK center, at Magsaysay Park in Divisoria, Cagayan de Oro City, on Thursday, April 20. (Photo courtesy of the Cagayan de Oro City Information Office)

Local officials of Cagayan de Oro led the groundbreaking and capsule-laying ceremony of Phase 1 of the Divisoria Redevelopment Project, including the establishment of the previously called OKK Center and now the Resilience Center, on Thursday, April 20. City Mayor Rolando Uy said the rebirth of OKK Center must still be in Divisoria, the center of the city, which used to be the center of business in the previous years. "And now that I was given a chance, I tried my best to revive the OKK for preparation and for providing an easy process for the people in asking for assistance," Uy said in his message during the groundbreaking at Divisoria here. During the 1990s, OKK was the centralized police station in downtown Divisoria that was significant to the city’s peace and order situation under the administration of the late former Mayor Pablo "Ambing" Magtajas. It can be recalled that around July last year, Uy promised to revive the OKK due to the series of crime incidents in the city. Apart from the station of the police authorities, the new Resilience Center will also house various city hall offices, including the City Social Welfare Development Office, the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department, the Roads, and Traffic Administration, and the Bureau of Fire Protection. Engr. Jenito Asequia, chief of the City Engineering Office, said Phase 1 of the Divisoria Redevelopment Project, which will cover Magsaysay Park, and the Resilience Center, is expected to be finished on June 10 this year. Uriel Quilinguing, a veteran Cagayan de Oro-based journalist who served as the editor-in-chief of the Gold Star Daily from 1988 to 1995, said the OKK Center during those years provided a relative and fast response to people’s concerns. "Remember, there was no internet or cellular phones at that time in the 1980s. There was a direct telephone line (Misortel). There were standby police patrol vehicles, ambulance vehicles, and fire trucks if there were fire incidents," Quilinguing recalled. The OKK center, Quilinguing added, was a 24/7 peace and order and public assistance center, and he recalled that different news outlets during those times were also staying 24/7 in the OKK center for direct coverage. The city government, through the establishment of the Resilience Center, is ready to help at any time in any calamity or emergency situation and to extend any assistance to those in need. The said three-phase redevelopment project will be handled by ESR Construction, a Mindanao-based company, and it has a 360-day completion timeframe.