Cebuanos united against politicizing tourism

In one unprecedented political statement, all our leaders in the province and the cities in One Cebu island are united in defense of a very professional, hardworking and passionate Cabinet member, the only one from our province, the Honorable Cristina Frasco. The dragon lady of Cebu, Governor Gwen, will not allow her daughter to be bullied by the trapos in Manila. The joint statement issued by all our members of Congress and LGU leaders is unprecedented and must command the support of PBBM and the Vice President.

The Cebuanos are free thinkers, libertarians and individualist non conformists. The Cebuanos do not just follow the flow. They have their own stand. In fact, we have always been very difficult to unite since the times of the political rivalry between the Oponganons, Lapulapu and Cebu mainland's Rajah Humabon. Cebuanos are individual free thinkers as exemplified by the famous Sotto brothers, Don Filemon and Don Vicente. The province used to be led by Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. and the Osmeñas before did not want the capital to become a chartered city because its revenues would be a big slice away from the provincial income. But Don Vicente Rama led the group that worked for and succeeded in getting the support of Congress even when Don Sergio was the Speaker of the House for the longest time.

There was a time when Cebu was fragmented between the Osmeñista under Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. and Serging Osmeña on one side and the Cuencista, on the opposite side, led by Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco and Don Miguel Cuenco . There were even political killings that happened during the very turbulent fifties and sixties. During the time of Serging Osmeña, he could not unite Cebu. He only controlled Cebu City, Mandaue, Lapulapu, Talisay up to Carcar. All the rest were Nacionalista.  Don Ramon Durano, the kingpin of Danao controlled all towns north of Consolacion up to Camote. He was allied strongly with president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. of the ruling party. Durano worked hard to defeat Serging in Cebu during the 1969 presidential fight between Marcos and Serging. Durano succeeded with the help of Congressman Ed Kintanar from Sibonga to Alcoy, Maning Zosa from Toledo down to Ronda, and Tereso Dumon from Balamban to Bantayan.

But today, Cebu is united against the bullies in Manila who are injecting dirty politics into tourism. Secretary Frasco has achieved leaps and bounds in tourist arrivals in numbers never attained  by DOT secretaries Richard Gordon, Ace Durano or Ramon Jimenez (my Bicolano cousin) Wanda Tulfo, the wonder woman from Davao. Secretary Frasco is a very hands-on, focused, dynamic and energetic cabinet member. She always moves around from the oil spill in Mindoro to the mountains of the Cordilleras, from the chocolates of Bohol to the beaches of Coron, Boracay and El Nido. She has small kids to care for but she gives much time to her job. She even goes with presidential trips to sell the Philippines to tourists. We have very bad airports, very risky roads and our weather is very unpredictable but her efforts paid off. Two million tourists arrived in no time at all. She is a wonder woman too much like her mom.

But instead of support from the Senate and the House, there is Senator Nancy Binay who claims she has better knowledge of tourism. There is this forever balimbing congressman from Bicol, Salceda, who makes mountains out of molehills just because the erupting Mayon is not in the ad. Why don't these guys just help a lady in distress instead of ganging up on her. Tourism should unite us. It should be spared from partisan politics. Therefore, we, Cebuanos, should continue to rally behind our only national figure today. She is our hope for the Senate and our best bet to become vice president someday. A minor error in ad campaign should not bamboozle the greatest hopes that we have in the national arena. The secretary does not know me from Adam. But, as a Cebuano, I will defend her to the last drop of my Lapulapu blood.