Now that President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Vice-President-elect Jejomar Binay have been proclaimed in a Joint Session in the House of Representatives, the next event to wait for is their oath-taking ceremonies that should be around the end of the month. Meanwhile, I have already said my piece about how the automated elections was so badly mismanaged by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), I just hope that the 15th Congress would start the debate on whether to continue with the automated elections, go back to the manual count or something better than what we had with Smartmatic.
Now is the time to say that the biggest loser in the last May 10 polls was Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, who started campaigning for President three years ago, ended up sliding down to run for Vice-President and still lost to VP Jejomar Binay. I voted for Mar Roxas for VP, which is why I still question why he lost to Binay.
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Vice-Gov. Greg Sanchez opted to make a response to our article in the editorial section of The FREEMAN to take potshots at this writer, because we questioned him about the Trans-Axial Highway where we still have to see a feasibility study done for this project. He apparently says that there is a model map for this project that can be seen at the entrance of the Cebu Capitol Legislative Building and an audio-visual presentation of this project that he can show us anytime at our convenience. He also added that only P12 million was spent on this feasibility study, not the P50 million that we asked.
Let me point out to the Vice-Governor that if he can only show a map of the Trans-Axial Highway at the entrance of Legislative Building and an audio-visual presentation, then he should know that the P12 million that the Province of Cebu spent for this project is money that’s not very well spent. What we need to know is, where are the proposed routes where this highway would pass. Mind you, anyone can draw a map and with today’s high-tech audio visual devices; anyone can make a nice audio-visual presentation to show to the public. But what we need are the facts and figures of the project.
Also, in yesterday’s The FREEMAN the Vice-Governor was reported to lobby for the Trans-Axial Highway with the incoming Aquino Administration, which he says would cost P5 billion. This is exactly what I would like to see, how the feasibility study came up with the figure of P5 billion for this project. This study is the key to this, not the maps or audio visual presentation he produced, so we can really go into the bottom of whether this project is economically feasible or not.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Governor also came up with another preposterous proposal for a 300MW wind power plant that he says would address the power shortage of Cebu. Perhaps the Vice-Governor is biting more than he can chew. Doesn’t he know that there are no identified areas in the island of Cebu where wind power is considered stable or feasible? Perhaps Vice-Gov. Greg Sanchez should find some time to visit the Wind Power Plant in Bangui, Ilocos Norte that many of us in the Cebu media already visited.
Doesn’t the Vice-Governor know that on a per kilowatt cost, it is still cheaper to construct a clean coal fired power plant that can truly address the power problems of Cebu? Sure, from an environmental standpoint, wind power can be cheap because its power source is the wind. But those machines are far more expensive than we even dreamed of, which is why a clean coal-fired power plant like the one in Sangi, Toledo City operated by the Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) is a more stable option to take.
Finally, the Vice-Governor took potshots at my being a director of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA). Is this a state secret? I have been a director from the time of Tita Cory, then Pres. Fidel Ramos and the latest appointment came from Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) through Gov. Pablo Garcia, because I am apolitical. I only serve the Cebuanos, much in the same way that I served the City of Cebu when I was with the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM) and later as Market Consultant of Cebu City. How about you Vice-Governor, would you serve Cebu without any remuneration? I seriously doubt it.
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The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is on a sales and marketing blitz here in Cebu, led by Area Director Lynelle Seow and Regional Director Chool Yee-Chong, trying to lure Cebuanos to visit Singapore again. Their logo is “Your Singapore” or in Cebuano, “Imong Singapore” because you can actually plot your trip to Singapore to visit the sites that you’d like to see, like the Universal Studios. Indeed, Singapore has reinvented itself.