Sinulog 2003 unreels today! Pit Senyor!

Today, Cebuanos greet everyone and anyone on the streets a happy Pit Senyor in honor of the Sto. Niño de Cebu. In the past week, we have seen the biggest number of balikbayans ever to come back to the shores of Cebu, concrete proof that the Balik Cebu Program, launched by sinulog Foundation Inc. Chairman and Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama and Cebu Holdings Inc. Ms. Tetta Baad, was a stunning success! Last year, when they launched this project, they already had their hands full of balikbayans, but this year, we’re literally overflowing with balikbayans.

Last Wednesday, for instance, the city of Cebu hosted a team of 70 doctors from Chicago at the Chika-an Restaurant and the Fuente Osmeña is the site of nightly street parties hosted by numerous rock bands and capped by the Freego Band Competition Grand Finals last Thursday night. Street parties are being hosted in many places. But the best attended event of all is the solemn procession for the Senyor Sto. Niño de Cebu on Saturday night.

With the year 2003 dubbed as Visit the Philippines Year, the Sinulog fiesta celebrations is definitely a good time and place to start this marvelous tourism promotional campaign. Just imagine if every Filipino living here who has relatives abroad convinces them to come and visit… we wouldn’t even need foreign tourists to call this tourism campaign a stunning success! The difference between a foreign tourist and a balikbayan is that, the balikbayan being a native Pinoy isn’t affected by reports on terrorism in certain parts of Mindanao… unlike the foreign tourists who think or believe that the Abu Sayyaf is operating in the entire Philippine archipelago.

While many balikbayans and tourists have come to Cebu in streams… unfortunately, the bad criminal elements have also come to prey on the unsuspecting revelers. Last Thursday morning, two men held up a Talamban-Colon jeepney. The victim who lost his P9,000 ring was able to meet a team of police from the theft and robbery section who pursued the holduppers and cornered them along Sepulveda and Concepcion streets. When the police announced the arrest, the two refused saying "so what if you’re the police?" and pulled their guns. Luckily, Cebu’s Finest was quick on the draw.

The two dead holduppers were later identified as Ronald Dumanacal from Tagum City Davao and Jekjek Sumapig from Iligan City. No doubt, most of the criminal elements that swoop down on Cebu are not indigenous to Cebu, but since most of Mindanao speak the Cebuano language, it is easy for them to melt into the population. Surely, there are more of them now on the prowl, but Cebu City police Director Josephus "Jojo" Angan has already put his men on the alert and there is no question that the Cebu City police is on top of the situation. But still, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña cautioned all Sinulog revelers to be on the watch and to immediately report any suspicious-looking fellows who could be on the prowl along the Sinulog Parade route.

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Meanwhile, another highlight of the Sinulog Week was the crowning of the Ms. Cebu 2003 Beauty Pageant at the ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug. A beaming 18-year-old Ms. Karla Bautista won the crown as Ms. Cebu 2003. Ms. Melissa Marie Basubas was first runner-up, followed by Ms. Glency Sue Marie Senires as 2nd runner-up, with 3rd runner-up going to Ms. Mariechris Masong and Ms. Nina Villegas as 4th runner-up.

The winners were crowned by Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Cebu City First Lady Margot Osmeña.

On Friday night, the Cebu Arts Foundation Inc. presented the 21st Cebu Popular Music Festival, also at the Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug with participation of the 12 finalists for the best Cebuano songs accompanied by the Mutya Orchestra. Unfortunately, as of press time, we can’t give you information as to who won this annual and very prestigious event.

Today, Sinulog revelers would see the more than 50 contingents along the Carousel Parade route. Many of these contingents come from as far as Mindanao and for the first time ever, there will be a Japanese contingent, thus giving Sinulog 2003 an international flair. Aside from the usual bands, carefully choreographed dances and the famous higgantes, this time, Sinulog introduces a group of puppeteers who will dance to the rhythm and beat of Sinulog 2003.

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The results of The STAR text survey published last Thursday on the question of our shift to a parliamentary form of government showed that 154 texted a big "no" to this proposal while only 58 agreed with this. Clearly, Speaker Jose de Venecia is headed in the wrong direction. How many columns ago have we written that we’ve already tried the parliamentary form of government during the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship and the country’s only Prime Minister Cesar Virata was nothing more than a titular head of state? Hence, I’m not surprised with the results of that survey.

There’s no question that the ulterior motive of the Speaker is too obvious not to be seen by our people. In the end, he has done a disservice to those of us in the Visayas and Mindanao who wanted to call for a Constitutional Convention (Con-con) because the numerous surveys on Charter changes (Cha-cha) do not distinguish between a parliamentary system or a federal system of government. We know too well that the biggest folly of our nation is its highly-centralized form of government, so even if we shifted to a parliamentary form and kept our centralized form of government, we’d still fail miserably!

The last SWS survey showed that there’s no grassroots clamor to amend the Constitution. Of course, there’s none. The grassroots’ only clamor is food on their table… that’s if they even have a table to start with! The grassroots couldn’t really care any less what kind of Constitution or government system we have… they’d still be poor anyway! I have heard this time and time again that the poor people would still be poor even if we turned communist!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.