We should create a Metro Cebu Authority

Our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky, we bring you a startling report on “What Contraceptives can do to a Woman’s Body.” Indeed, contraceptives have become so easy for women to buy in drugstores, it’s almost like buying a pack of chewing gum. But few women know that contraceptives are apparently designed to disrupt their physiological cycles, like their menstrual cycles. When that happens, the body reacts to the drug, which is a foreign matter to a woman’s body.

 This is the first time in our almost 11 years of hosting this show that we have featured this topic and we hope it would educate our women of the problems that they would encounter when they use contraceptives. One of them is the dreaded breast cancer. Tonight with us is Dr. Anabella Guardiario who will explain what happens to women who take contraceptives. Please watch this very informative show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm tonight.

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 It seems that because of the problems caused by that microburst which drenched the Metro Cebu Cities a couple of weeks ago, it triggered calls for the resurrection of the Metro Cebu Development Council (MCDC). Yes, I say resurrection because this was one body that was supposed to have been created for Metro Cebu patterned from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). So you may ask: “What happened to it?”

 I remember that the law to create the Metro Cebu Development Authority (MCDA) was with then Cebu Congressman Raul del Mar. Unfortunately, he couldn’t push through with that bill because of the quarrel between then Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his cousin then Sen. John “Sonny” Osmeña. This is just an example of how development to help our people gets delayed because of political squabbling.

 Now Gov. Gwen F. Garcia is working to create a Council instead of an Authority in order to address the problems of having a master drainage plan. But I fully agree with Rep. Eduardo “EddieGul” Gullas when he suggested that the MCDC should address all the common problems in Metro Cebu like traffic, peace and order, sanitation and waste management. I also fully agree that it is time to have another Metro Cebu Land Use Transport Study (MCLUTS), which later became the Metro Cebu Development Plan (MCDP).

 We needed another MCLUTS/MCDP yesterday! Cebu needs the 3rd connection to Mactan, it needs to widen roads like Escario St. or at least create parallel roads and yes, we needed a Metro Cebu Traffic Authority (MCTA). So why not make MCDC an authority instead of a council, huh?

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 Last Saturday, the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother) inaugurated the Community Scouts Youth Rehabilitation and Guidance Center (CSYGC) which has been one of the Mother Club’s longest running project reaching as long as 25 years. This project is located in Barangay Duljo-Fatima and it aims to help our poor children become better citizens. This project was adopted with Councilor Margot Osmeña’s Cebu City Street Children Foundation, the Rotary International’s World Community Service Program, the Yotsukaido Rotary Club of Japan, the Don Bosco Vocation School, the USC Training Center and Sen. Migs Zubiri.

 More than any Rotarian, I doff my hat to my dear friend who is like a brother to me, Engr. Pericles “Ricky” Dakay for contributing his time, money and tons of effort in making this edifice the reality that it is today. I just learned from Councilor Margot Osmeña that Sen. Migs Zubiri gave more than P4 Million to this project. We met him last Saturday and he told us that he would continue giving funds to this project including the other Rotary Clubs of Cebu. Now this is a Senator with a heart for Cebu!

 You may ask how this Community Scouts came into being. Well, in 1979 a lowly policeman from Cebu City, Cpl. Rodulfo Judilla who once headed the Juvenile Section of the Police Department organized a Boy Scout Troop from 25 Street Children and called them “Community Scouts.” He placed them in the North Reclamation area near the old White Gold Superstore. Now these Community Scouts have a new building. Congrats to our President Jose “Joe” Soberano that his edifice was finally inaugurated during your watch and to all our fellow Rotarians who’ve helped the club achieve this very noble goal.

Incidentally, the Rotary Club of Cebu’s new Sugbuanon publication came out also last Saturday. In our club’s history is the oldest photograph of RC Cebu, which is also one of the oldest photos from the Avila family album. I gave that photo to the Rotary Club years ago as it has my two grandfathers. In the middle is Capt. Valeriano Segura one of the founders of Rotary Club in Cebu and in the front row is my paternal grandfather Don Jose Avila. Yes I’m a 3rd generation Rotarian from both sides of the Avila and Segura family.