MACTAN, Cebu – When the typhoon “Odette” ravaged the Visayas region last December, the Megaworld township in Mactan, Cebu was not spared from its wrath – leaving behind broken glass, uprooted trees, and other infrastructure destruction.

But it took only half a year for Mactan Newtown to rebuild and recover from the typhoon’s onslaught to be able to host one of the biggest triathlon events in the world, the Ironman 70.3 race.

Despite reeling from the effects of “Odette,” the Mactan Newtown did not hesitate to sponsor and host the triathlon event and simultaneously hold the return of its Lechon Festival.

“It’s a story of recovery. Basically, when you consider what happened to this area with ‘Odette’ in December and you consider where we are right now, it’s amazing how we were able to recover,” Graham Coates, head of Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, told the press.

“This is probably the first major event since the typhoon in Cebu. We’re having two major events here: Ironman and the Lechon Festival. To have those both together is already an accomplishment.”

According to him, the Megaworld Group had to expedite the recovery to ensure that tourism will soon return to the 30-hectare township that features residential areas, BPO companies, retail stores, restaurants, and its own school.

The property giant spent hundreds of millions to repair all the damage their facilities incurred due to “Odette.”

Return of Lechon Festival after two-year hiatus

Capping its recovery journey, Mactan Newtown held for the first time since the pandemic started, its annual Lechon Festival that gives spotlight to lechoneros in Cebu to promote their product – a known dish in the island.

Started in 2017, the festival had to pause for a couple of years due to the health crisis. But for its return, the event showcased 10 different local lechon brands in front of many guests, mostly participants of the Ironman 70.3 race.

The chosen lechon entrepreneurs went through stringent measures from Megaworld, who checked if they comply with food safety standards – from production to roasting procedure – and their reputation as a brand.

While there were 10 exhibitors for this year’s food fest, many other interested lechoneros couldn't be accommodated due to space and logistic restrictions.

For the celebration, the participating Cebuano lechoneros gave up to 50% discount to guests at 3:21 p.m. (15:21) to highlight the importance of Ferdinand Magellan’s discovery of the Philippines in 1521. The sale lasted for only nine minutes.

Cultural performances and live bands were also positioned in the al fresco dining to entertain the guests of the festival while feasting on different kinds of lechon.

Expecting more sporting events after Ironman hosting

After the success of the Ironman race despite having only three months to prepare, Mactan Newtown is not wasting its momentum in positioning itself as a sports hub in Cebu province.

Even before the triathlon event ended, Coates already told the media that they are planning to have more sports activities in the township, particularly water sports to capitalize their beachfront.

“This really is just a start of what we planned to do. It’s not the end. Because we have a wonderful facility. And we don’t want to lose the momentum that we got. Of course what we planned to do is to secure Ironman again next year,” he said.

They are also looking forward to establishing some indoor sports facilities, and bringing in some international fitness activities that go beyond the traditional gym.

“We are looking at bringing in a couple of international fitness and sports activities. We’re going beyond the traditional gym we always had. But there’s a lot more lifestyle activities. We are definitely bringing something new,” Coates added.

Mactan Newtown is also rolling out plans to create bike lanes in the property, which was formerly known as Portofino Beach.

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The township is home to around 5,000 residents from three different condominiums within the property. It is still building more residential towers, eyeing to have 11 buildings by 2024.

Mactan Newtown also has over 40 retail stores including its own supermarket, pharmacy, convenient stores, and banks.

For tourists, the development has an 18-storey operational hotel, Savoy Hotel Mactan, as of writing. Two more hotels are in the pipeline for construction.

Coates, meanwhile, assured that they are exercising preventive measures to avoid or minimize the effect of typhoons in the property.

“We can only do what we can do. We have daily tracking on weather conditions. We can do certain preventive measures but the wrath of God, we cannot stop that,” he said.

The Megaworld executive also added that they have readjusted their infrastructure designs, taking in all the lessons from the storms that have passed the township.

So far, the property giant has 28 township developments all over the Philippines.

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