There's no unifying the nation under Pres. PNoy!

The big news from Malacañang has been splashed in all the headline news, that after months of indecision by Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III on the issue of giving a state burial for the late Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, which he passed on to Vice President Jejomar Binay, in the end, Pres. PNoy said, “It would be the height of injustice to Martial Law victims to have Marcos accorded state honors.” This is proof that reconciliation was never in the mind of Pres. PNoy when he gave false hopes to the Marcos Family that he was amendable to a possible compromise for the sake of unifying the country. So now the nation under Pres. PNoy gets more fragmented!

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 Mayor Michael Rama is seeking to open a new road that would connect the already clogged Escario St. to V. Rama Ave. that would cut through properties owned by the Province of Cebu in an attempt to decongest M. Velez St. This is a project that isn’t exactly new as we already looked into this a few years ago. But while the government would save money as it won’t be paying for government owned roads, however there are many residences that would be affected or displaced because of this plan. So in the end, it would still cost a lot of money to move them.

 The cheaper way is still the widening of M. Velez St. especially around the bend beside the Capitol Building. This widening was started when I was Chair of CITOM, but ran into a snag because of the legal issues involving the squatters occupying the land, which I gathered has now been won by the Quijada Family. This project is clear proof that road widening in Cebu isn’t a good option.

 It is for this reason why the Japanese government, through JICA, no longer funds road projects in the Philippines because the Japanese cannot understand why Filipinos refuse to help the government by donating their land for the widening project which benefits the greater majority of our people. There are so many roads in Japan that are narrower than ours, yet they solve that issue, not by widening, but by building micro cars that can traverse those narrow roads.

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 It was a big birthday bash that Gov. Gwen held last Wednesday evening at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel with the ballroom filled with guests, the most notable of all were Sen. Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos, Jr. and former Sen. Migz Zubiri who flew from Manila despite the stormy weather. Talk of the evening was the remarkable way that Metro Cebu was spared the effects of Typhoon Ramon, which we later learned left two people dead in the northern part of Cebu. Again, I’d like to reiterate that it was through our prayers that our beloved city was spared the damaging effects of the storm.

 One curious conversation I struck with Ms. Teresin Mendezona is worth mentioning, when she told me that they were taking off from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific plane bound for Cebu on a rather stormy weather. An Italian gentleman seated beside her, who was rather on the edge, asked if they were Filipinos and she replied that they were. Then the Italian relaxes and said, “Now I can take it easy knowing Filipinos are with me on this plane because they are a prayerful nation. We Italians no longer pray as a nation.”

 The Italian man hit it right on the nail, that we Filipinos, more notably we Cebuanos, pray a lot, especially to our Señor Sto. Niño. In another conversation, Mrs. Betsy Quisumbing, (wife of my old barkada Luis and mother of Rep. Luigi Quisumbing) told me that Cebu was spared by the typhoon because the majority of Cebuanos (especially our political leadership) are against the RH bill. I can’t say that I disagree with Betsy. In fact, early morning yesterday, the anti-RH bill advocates received the best news we’ve had since the RH debates began… that the Senate has postponed the RH debate to January. This delay is a great help to our cause.

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 A week ago, we hopped over to the Radisson Blu as the University of the Visayas (UV) launched its new university logo. The new UV logo has the letters UV surrounded by two circles, the outer circle of green and the inner circle in white with the words “Since 1919” below. These are the colors of UV since they opened their doors in the year 1919. This logo emphasizes simplicity in its design, as the key to excellence in our science driven, technology oriented world. Simplicity is integrity, honesty and character, values which made Visayanians royals, kings and queens without crowns. Let me add that this simple logo also reveals the traits of Sir Jose “Dodong” Gullas and Rep. Eddie Gullas, the most humble Cebuanos that I know.

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