For our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky, we bring you the officials from the City of Haarlemmermeer who always come to honor their sister-city relations with Cebu City.
We have with us, former Cebu City councilor Alvin Dizon who is now the chairman of the Sister Cities Committee, and with him are his counterparts President of VHC Haarlemmermeer Mr. Henk Konning, secretary Peter Janssen, and treasurer Jan Willem Ittmann, who will give us a background of how the City of Haarlemmermeer committed itself to this wonderful sister city relations with Cebu City.
So watch this very interesting talk on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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One of the big surprises I got last Friday was a report that Mr. Erik Espina of "Republika," who is a general in the army reservist group, has been appointed by President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte to replace dismissed Cebu City councilor James Cuenco.
I have always been in touch with Erik and his dad, former governor Rene Espina, when they were living in Manila. But since December last year, they moved back to Cebu permanently.
But I noticed that former mayor Michael Rama claimed responsibility saying that he was the one who got the president to appoint Erik to replace Cuenco. This only means that Erik will certainly belong to Team Rama, which means both parties now have an equal number of councilors. I'm not going to press Erik on his position until I interview him on my TV show after I return after my trip to Europe this week.
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Last Friday, the Hilton Motors in Mandaue City, which is owned by businessman Peter Lim, was bombed by still unknown personalities. A few days earlier, I also read a report on Facebook that a couple of still-unidentified arsonists tried to burn the infinity KTV Bar and Music Lounge which is owned by Willie Lim, the younger brother of Peter Lim.
It was only last March when armed men tried to assassinate Willie Lim, killing his security guard while firing at his vehicle which was bulletproof. Lim has since left Cebu and is living somewhere else, maybe in the US.
At this point, I would like to press the PNP to secure these establishments simply because if they get burned the conflagration might affect other businesses. Remember that when Willie Lim was shot at, his security guard was killed by the gunmen and apparently no one in the PNP is trying to investigate who tried to kill him. Now they should also look for the possible arsonists and the bombmaker who bombed Hilton motors. I have no doubt that these people are up to nonsense and I dare say that the police authorities should be on the lookout for them.
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Last Saturday, I went to the Mandaue reclamation area to go to S&R, which I have not done in six months. It was then that I discovered that many of the roads along the Mandaue Reclamation are still in a state of disrepair. After S&R, I decided to go to AS Fortuna Ave. and it was there that I learned that traffic was quite bad after Oakridge. Feeling that traffic was in a standstill I turned around and drove to Hernan Cortes, where traffic towards Mandaue was bad, but light as you went towards Cebu City. Then in Panagdait things went from bad to worse. Mind you, this was a Saturday afternoon when we do not expect traffic along Mandaue City to be that bad.
As I got home and opened my Facebook page, I was surprised to hear my FB friends complaining about how bad traffic was on the roads south of Cebu City where the underpass was under construction. Something is terribly wrong with the traffic in that area especially that we did not expect a carmageddon on a Saturday. It's high time that the Cebu City Transportation Office seriously look into this problem.
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.