Wanted: Retraining for bus and truck drivers

For our special presentation on our show on Straight from the Sky, we bring you a postscript of the Gabii sa Kabilin Museum Tour that is now on its fourth season. This event happened last May 28th and was extremely successful because many Cebuanos took the opportunity to see the nine participating museums throughout Cebu City. I was at the Casa Gorordo that evening where the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) prepared a night of Cebuano culture, where old songs and balaks were presented to the delight of Cebuanos.

I too discovered something that evening; the Jesuit House built in the year 1730 situated right in Zueluta St. I was born and grew up in Parian but I never got a glimpse of this edifice until May 28. At the Museo sa Sugbo, they had a playbill for the Teatro Oriente, which the Avila Family has no copy of. This is why the Gabii sa Kabilin was a success, because we rediscover our roots and what was Cebu a hundred years ago.

With us tonight at the Museo sa Sugbo is Mr. Karl Hegel Damayo of RAFI; Mr. Ray Estrada, a researcher at the Museo sa Sugbo; Ms. Chloe Lopez of AboitizLand; Barangay Capt. Pancho Ramirez of Barangay Sto. Niño and Archt. Anthony Abelgas who is doing the restoration work at the Jesuit House, which is the oldest house in Cebu and maybe the entire Philippines. So watch this postscript of the Gabii sa Kabilin on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00PM.

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The Philippine National Police (PNP) especially the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) have their hands full in the recent murder of businessman Manuel Ting, owner of Parklane Hotel, when another ambush attempt using a machine pistol was done right next door at the CPPO Headquarters. But this daring attempt on the life of Mr. Nestor Zamoras of Taheiyo Cement Corp. What was remarkable in this ambush was it was thwarted by Zamora’s bulletproof SUV. Apparently, previous attempts on his life made him decide to put a bulletproof glass in his Ford Everest.

Call the CPPO lucky. Those bungling suspected killers Orlando Sagnoy, Jerome Noel and Roberto Tercero did not only fail in their attempt to kill Mr. Zamoras, they also got themselves caught red-handed! At least, this is one case that the CPPO doesn’t need to scratch their heads to get into the bottom of this crime. But what’s scary about Cebu City right now is that, hired killers seem to have a heyday in tracking their prey and firing their guns in broad daylight. So now, the CPPO can once again concentrate on the case of the Ting brothers.

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Just when we thought that the J & D bus tragedy is already behind us, last Thursday a Ceres Bus Line flipped onto its side in Barangay Damolog, Sogod where 12 passengers were hurt. But they should consider themselves lucky because they were a few feet away from the cliff, which would have turned this accident into a tragedy like what happened in Transcentral Highway. To think, amongst all the bus companies plying in Cebu, the Ceres Bus Line is the most reliable. Could it be that Ceres Bus Lines are recruiting new drivers with less experience and worse, reckless?

Again, I would like to emphasize that many buses today carry the same number of passengers like that of many turbo-prop driven airlines. But the pilots of those planes have to go through rigid training and retraining, which is non-existent with bus companies. Perhaps the LTO should come up with stricter rules for retraining bus and truck drivers, just like airline pilots.

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THE BLACKBOX:

Call it a rarity that last Friday, a small group of Cebu media was invited to a presscon with no less than Ayala Corporation CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (JAZA) for a no-holds-barred Q&A. JAZA talked about the plans and programs for the Ayala Corp. and Cebu Holdings, Inc. that they would be investing in many businesses in Cebu, including Tourism. With Tourism in mind, I even threw in a possibility of having a branch of the Ayala Museum right here in Cebu; after all, there’s a lot of culture and heritage to preserve here and good museums do attract tourists.

Of course, left on our own, JAZA and I talked about our most favorite topic- motorcycles. Yes, he still rides, when he can. I’m sure he wishes to have more time for riding, than calling for high-powered meetings. He was in Cebu for two reasons, as one of the principal awardees for the Grand Chamber Awards of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CCCI) and to meet the officers of the Ayala Business Club which recently held the first ever Visayas-Mindanao Regional Summit of the Ayala Business Club (ABC) last June 4, 2010. This means, we can look forward to a more dynamic and aggressive Ayala Group of Companies having more businesses in Cebu.