I fully agree. We shouldn't kill the Sinulog

Allow me to comment on The Freeman editorial yesterday which blared, "Beginning of the end for Sinulog" which stated, "Unless those in charge of the Sinulog, be it the city government or the Sinulog Foundation, do something about the rowdiness and hooliganism being induced by unbridled drinking and very possibly the taking of drugs, we might as well start kissing the festival goodbye. It may not happen next year, it may not happen in five years. But unless those evil offspring of the Sinulog are seized by their horns and done away with, the death of the Sinulog becomes inevitable."

While we submit that the Sinulog is the fiesta of Cebu City and therefore we can allow people to put their hair down so to speak… however there must be limits put in place. For instance, you may drink all you want in a bar but when you are stone cold, the bar tender will kick your butt out!

I'm not saying that I have the solution to this problem. Let me just say that it is high time that we get serious about stopping the drunken binge that mars the Sinulog Festival. How? I dare say we conduct a Sinulog Summit and brainstorm on this and put it to practice in next years' Sinulog.

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The 51st International Eucharistic Congress will kick off this weekend, however yesterday; the IEC has already conducted a Theological Symposium at the Cebu Doctors University at the North Reclamation in Mandaue City. The Eucharistic Congress aims to promote awareness of the centrality of the Eucharist in the life and the mission of the Catholic Church and draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist.

While most of the Catholic faithful already know and understand that our Lord Jesus Christ is fully present, his body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist, it is unfortunate that today many Catholics have taken this belief for granted. How do I know this? Whenever the Holy Mass is performed outside a church, perhaps in a friends house or a building, during the consecration, no one kneels down when the words of consecration is spoken by the priest. While inside the church, everyone gets to kneel because there is a kneeler available. However nobody does so during a private mass.

In my book, the Catholic faithful should kneel in reverence when the words of consecration are spoken because it is that precise time when transubstantiation takes place. As I read an old quotation, which goes, "Anyone who kneels before God can stand before anyone!" I often ask friends what they would do if suddenly, the Lord Jesus Christ appears in their midst? Most of them say that they would kneel or even prostrate themselves before the Lord. Yet these same friends do not kneel during the consecration.

This is why I'm glad that Cebu is playing host to the 51st IEC so that the world would know that if ever our Lord Jesus Christ comes back to earth on his second coming, he would find faith here in Cebu. We saw the millions that flooded the streets of Cebu City last Saturday for the procession of the Senyor Sto. Niño. Next week during the Visita Iglesia for the IEC, let us show our foreign guests our Catholic faith.

Because of the hosting of the 51st IEC, the bigwigs at the Cebu City Traffic Office have allowed certain major roads to be closed to the public for the duration of the IEC. I will not take this against them, as it is their job to keep traffic flowing especially during this internationally known event of the Catholic Church. This is why I was taken aback when the DILG suspended Mayor Michael Rama for removing a road barrier in Katipunan St., which is one of the duties of a city mayor.

However what are the CCTO officials thinking these days? They have practically removed the concrete dividers that forces motorists or drivers to stay in their respective lanes and worse they even removed those concrete dividers on major intersections where mindless drivers simply cut corners with impunity because there are no traffic enforcers to stop this ugly practice.

The other night, I was making a left turn towards Gorordo Ave. from Salinas Drive and because the center island along Gorordo Ave. was already removed, a taxicab tried to overtake me on my left side. I opened my window and motioned to the driver that he was already cutting corners, and he still pushed me. Good thing, the approaching traffic got to his taxi and he was forced to make a U-turn to save himself from embarrassment. This was one act that the driver could never have done if the CCTO kept that concrete barrier in place, especially along the corners in order to prevent motorists from cutting into your lane.

Let's face it, many Cebuano drivers are totally irresponsible. They have no driving manners and they drive their cars not much different from driving a motorcycle taxi known here as "habal-habal." This is why I exhort CCTO officials to immediately restore the concrete barriers along the major intersections.

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