Why Cebuanos are going for Gibo Teodoro?

It was a hectic weekend for many of us that actually started last Friday with the Environmental Tourism Forum with former Pres. Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) in attendance, but we couldn’t participate in that forum as we had to be in Mactan to meet the remains of our dear friend Press Sec. Cerge M. Remonde. After escorting him to the Malacañang sa Sugbo, we huffed off to the Presidential Forum dubbed, “Choices and Voices for 2010” where we had a field day seeing for the first time all the job applicants running for the Office of the President in the May 2010 elections. We shall deal on this later.

Then last Saturday, my big biker friends escorted Cerge to his hometown in Argao in what I would call, perfect riding weather, where dark clouds covered most of the route that no one gave a single sweat in our thick jackets. Arriving in Argao brought to us the reality of how Argaoanons love and truly miss their native son, Cerge. Unfortunately, I couldn’t return to Argao on Sunday for his burial, as I had to stay for the funeral mass of my uncle Archt. Gregorio “Dodi” Segura who passed away last Saturday. My wife, Jessica and son, JV (he is the Godson of Cerge) went with DOT Regional Director Patria “Dawnee” Roa for the funeral of Cerge.

That Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) and Vice-Pres. Noli de Castro all went to Argao and bury Cerge is testimony of their love and care for a fallen friend. Argao and let me say including the whole of Cebu have never seen such a regal and stately funeral for a fallen Cebuano. Thus ended the life and times of our dear friend, from his humble beginnings in Argao to the hallowed halls of the Malacañang Palace and now he is finally back in his native place for a final peaceful slumber. We will never forget you Cerge!

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I’m sure that a lot of our readers have already learned or read the reports on that Presidential Forum dubbed “Choices and Voices for 2010”. We have already heard most, if not all of these Presidentiables on nationwide TV or on nationwide radio. But it was a first for us Cebuanos, because we wanted to hear from these job applicants what they would do for Cebu, after all, we’ve already heard all the motherhood statements from them.

That’s why I was happy that the first question thrown at the Presidentiables is what they would do for Cebu when they are elected President? Except for former Defense Sec. Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr. and Sen. Richard Gordon, the other Presidentiables didn’t give any specifics on what they would do for Cebu. Worse, most of them spoke in Tagalog, as if they thought that everyone in the audience knows how to speak or understand Tagalog.

Gibo gave specifics that he learned from my TV interview with him, that we needed to widen our roads, especially in H. Cortes and that parallel road to Escario St. in order to ease our growing traffic problem. He also proposed the 3rd link from Cebu City to Mactan Island via Cordova and agreed that Cebu and Bohol should also be linked by land bridges. Sen. Gordon pointed out that Tourism would boost the growth and development of Cebu through international advertising.

Meanwhile, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III told the audience that he would still consult the local government to find out their problems and come up with solutions. It is more than obvious that the people in Cebu pushing for Noynoy haven’t helped him at all in understanding what Cebu needs. Here is Noynoy, still finding out what we need in Cebu, while Gibo and Gordon already has a very detailed plan what Cebu really needs right now.

That Gibo won a resounding victory in the mock polls during that forum was quite surprising in the sense that, I really thought that most Cebuanos would push for Noynoy, especially that I saw a huge number of people wearing yellow t-shirts in CICC. But in the end, the Cebuanos have shown that they would vote for the intelligent candidate, especially one who knew what he can do for Cebu and Gibo is the choice for Cebuanos!

Of course, when he heard that he got only 296 out of the 960 ballots cast, Noynoy disappeared quietly. Then he comes out in an interview denouncing the mock polls as “not scientific”. Noynoy doesn’t realize that those who attended that forum was a very good cross section of Cebu society, including a lot of students and the youth. Yes, the masa wasn’t there. But that survey was a real one… unlike the surveys done by SWS or Pulse Asia where no one except them knows where they did the sampling.

What is clear in that survey is that, the people pushing for Noynoy in Cebu hasn’t done enough to deliver him the votes that he would need to win the Presidency. Cebuanos have shown once again that it knows how to make the right choice for our next President. We did that for Pres. Arroyo and she won’t the Presidency. So the question is whether Cebu can do it for Gibo?

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