Busy January 2016 for Cebu
Celebrations and reunions often end with Christmas and New Year for many Filipinos.
In Cebu, however, the festivities continue on to the celebration of the Feast of the Sto. Niño, also referred to as Cebu's Sinulog, with about a million devotees and participants expected to attend both the sacred and secular events prepared for this happy occasion. The Feast of the Sto. Niño is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of January in Cebu but days prior to this feast, activities have been lined up for the local and foreign devotees and the tourists from various parts of the Philippines and the world.
This year, Cebu extends the celebration beyond the Feast of the Sto. Nino when it welcomes an expected 15,000 delegates for the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) from January 24 -31. This is the second time Cebu will host the IEC since 1937.
Despite earlier official announcements that he will not be able to grace this event this time in Cebu, hopes remain high until now about the attendance of Pope Francis for this IEC. Should the Pope decide to change his mind, expect the participants and guests to swell even more!
How prepared is Cebu for these busy events?
Prior Sinulog experiences have demonstrated Cebu's capacity to manage traffic and security issues. Managing the waste generated by the public, however, remains a challenge. This time around, we hope that collective efforts are now in place to be able to tap the treasure from the trash and to be able to create a responsible network of waste managers, preferably from communities, who can be appropriately compensated for their clean-up job from possible income that can be generated from the collected waste during this event. We hope the same responsible and effective collective community-based waste management system can also be in place for the International Eucharistic Congress.
By community-based waste management system, we mean the collaborative networking of various stakeholders within the communities where the Sinulog events will take place. The stakeholders can include the Cebu City Council and staff, the local community leaders and residents, the schools, businesses, churches and other participants in all the areas to be included in the Sinulog Festival.
Year in, year out, Sinulog is a major attraction for Cebu and is an important religious festival awaited by close to a million devotees and visitors. It is about time that the city also learns how to effectively convert the problem of trash to treasure, how to manage the waste for income and employment generation, not to mention the beautiful values that can be inculcated among Cebuanos when they realize the power of collective effort to clean up after the fiesta. Collective waste management can also be a form of prayer and worship that can be led and encouraged by the Church, in compliance with Pope Francis' advocacy to protect God's creations.
We also hope that roadside selling can be more effectively and systematically managed. This can be done with effective dialogue and registration and rehearsals even with all participants for this year's Sinulog and IEC.
With more visitors anticipated, we also pray that the security will be tight and effective enough to protect and safeguard all.
Will Cebu roads be ready before the Sinulog and/or the IEC? This is a major concern not only so Cebu's visitors can enjoy smooth and safe travel. Cebu residents themselves have continued to protest the irresponsible and unsystematic, uncoordinated road repair, widening and other infrastructure projects that are ongoing and never seem to end in various parts of Cebu.
Even if the two important events, the Sinulog and the IEC will be held mostly in Cebu City, visitors arriving by plane land in Mactan Island, travel from Lapu-Lapu through Mandaue, to Cebu City. The roads from the airport to Cebu City are still in so much need of immediate completion and coordinated, responsible and scheduled system of repair and construction.
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