About the Tourism Secretary's resignation

For our Special Presentation tonight in Straight from the Sky, we bring you a serious talk about the Economy of Cebu and find out whether we are moving forward or not. With the world in financial turmoil, not to mention that ugly riots in the United Kingdom, the civil war in Libya or in Syria and the famine in Somalia, we often wondered how we in Cebu could survive? Of course, most of us who are spiritually minded know in our hearts that God gave Cebu a special place in his kingdom when we embraced the Sto. Niño and Christianity took its roots in Asia right here in Cebu.

 But look around you and if you’ll notice how bad traffic has become, it could only lead you to conclude that more and more people are buying cars because of our robust economy, but alas our city planners have not anticipated this phenomenal growth and even failed to enforce simple traffic rules. But yes, the Cebu economy has shown signs of growth despite the problems of the world.

 To find out whether we would continue to grow, tonight we have a dear friend, whom I consider as one of the most important Cebuanos as far as looking forward in our economy is concerned. That’s Mr. Joel Mari Yu, Executive Director of the Cebu Investment Promotion Center (CIPC) who once told me that the furniture industry would fall sharply in those days when you would think that was an impossible prediction. He also predicted the growth of the I.T. Industry here and see how it has grown since. So watch Mr. Joel Mari Yu on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8 pm tonight.

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 Today is the Feast of the Solemnity of the Assumption or the Dormition of the Theotokos by the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches where Christianity believes that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven after her earthly life ended. This was the belief by the Catholic Church for 2,000 years, but it was only on Nov.1, 1950 when Pope Piux X11 made this into a dogma and made it one of the holidays of obligation for all Catholics. This is written in the Apostolic Constitution Munifientissimus Deus.

 Pope John Paul II was in Lourdes, France on August 12, 2004 when he quoted a passage from John 14:3 as the scriptural basis for the Catholic dogma of the Assumption, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.” If our Lord Jesus Christ promised this to his disciples (and to all of us who do the Will of the Father), how much more to his own mother, who, despite her virginity, accepted the Word of God into her flesh and God was made man to save us from our sins. So please do some kind of mortification even if it’s a Monday and we have work. Go to Mass and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary on this wonderful Feast of the Assumption.

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 Last Friday morning, I was awaken by text messages and calls from friends, especially from Manila, that Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim had finally resigned and since a lot of people knew that I had a one-on-one meeting with the Tourism Secretary last Thursday evening, I might have said something to convince Sec. Lim to resign. Of course we know too well that old dictum, “Victory has a thousand fathers, while defeat is a lonely orphan.” It would have been very easy for me to accept the messages of congratulations that our columns were responsible for the resignation of the Tourism Secretary, but in truth, the stage was already set for him to quit.

 By Friday afternoon, I got a communiqué from Malacañang (they always send one to journalists in their list) on Sec. Lim’s resignation and allow me to copy the first part of that communiqué. “Last Monday, the President accepted the resignation of Alberto A. Lim as Secretary of Tourism, effective August 31, 2011. The resignation was announced today to permit Mr. Lim to attend the MICE Conference.”

 To be totally honest about it, I never had an inkling that Sec. Lim would resign, or, as others aptly put it, was made to resign. My hunch is, Sec. Lim sent a courtesy resignation to Malacañang last Monday, hoping against hope that Pres. PNoy would not accept it. Then he came to Cebu to mend fences with those in the tourism industry working against him. Since I was hitting him with my articles in both The Philippine Star and The FREEMAN, he called me last Tuesday to set up a one-on-one meeting with me.

 Since the meeting at the Cebu Country Club’s Bar was quite cordial, I did not ask him to resign. Somehow during the presscon before our meeting, Sec. Lim answered a straight question whether he would quit or not… and he categorically answered that he wasn’t resigning. I would have had more respect for Sec. Lim if he told the Cebu media the truth - that he already tendered his resignation since Monday. The rest of course is history!

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