‘Hopeless’ New Year

ASK me not in mournful numbers, New Year is but a dream, and the day comes trembling as the “hopeless” year tumbles down, lost in the maze of ways that we dare not wish to come. That, of course, is a paraphrase of a poorly remembered verse from my high school English subject.

New Year or Jan. 1 becomes, as we contended, a “hopeless” day. And why don’t we contend that way? Many Cebuanos feel a general misgiving about the coming year because of the doubts in the overall peace and order atmosphere hanging over the cities and province. This even if the mayors and the governor are projecting a measure of positive leadership in their areas of responsibility.

The positive projection, though, is not quite credible when the overall circumstance is taken into consideration.

“The arrival of a police assault team in the early hours of New Year’s Eve provoked Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s camp to cover all the windows in the hall leading to her office...also provoked her family...to accuse Police Regional Office 7 Chief Marcelo Garbo Jr. of 'a personal vendetta.’”

That was how Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s suspension appeared to the Cebuanos: with tension.

However, while PRO 7 confirmed that some Special Weapons and Tactics personnel were sent to the Capitol on New Year’s Eve, he said they were there “not to physically remove the governor from her office but to secure the area.”

As an added note to the overall outlook for 2013, we have the neutral stand of the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI). It has warned candidates who may attend the festivities to please not use the fiesta activities as an excuse for “politicking.” The warning is intended not only for Cebuano politicians but also those from outside Cebu.

People who join the celebration are practically an amalgam of people from all social levels of Filipino society in the country. With that as a political given, it is inevitable that some of those who are attracted to the feast would be tempted to distribute leaflets and other political campaign materials. There is no way of stopping them unless forewarned.

In any case, what we are trying to show is the fact that it does not seem appropriate in our part of the country to say Happy New Year in the backdrop of the prevailing incidents. Things just aren’t the same. We cannot welcome a new epoch in our lives when what we see and what experience as true and real does not jive with the facts.

But still, we go just the same with the truth of the saying that “hope springs eternal.”