Wenceslao: Consultation and masterplan

I SAW cruising through the Cebu south road yesterday a yellow dump truck crowded with passengers. The dump truck was obviously owned by the Tuburan Municipal Government, considering the words painted on its sides, and its passengers must have come all the way from that town. This shows that the directive of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) banning the use of dump trucks to transport people has not been heeded.

Seares: Stalking your foe with flood of Tweets

LOOK at the horror of possibility if, say, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama were stalked by his political foe with a deluge of Tweets.

Say, 8,000 Tweet posts, ranging from the merely annoying (“How you doing, mongrel”) to the really nasty (“Do the city a favor and go kill yourself; have a nice day”).

Nalzaro: Johnny Come Lately

WITH the elimination of its pre-audit policy, we can call the Commission on Audit (COA) “Johnny Come Lately.” COA will only declare a transaction questionable and will disallow cash advances if the transactions have been consummated and government funds have been unjustifiably spent and can no longer be recovered.

Mongaya: Shabu in our midst

UNLESS our law enforcers score a series of major victories against the well-entrenched shabu industry in our midst, we can expect more senseless, gory crimes in Cebu like the slaying last week of a mother by her drug-crazed son.

Echaves: The legacy

I HAD the privilege yesterday of delivering the Memorial Lecture on Don Agustin Jereza, founder of the University of Southern Philippines.

Venue was the Theater for Performing Arts in its main campus in Lahug, and had he seen it, the great builder would have been impressed, too, with its magnificence.

Sunstar essay: Take a break

IN JUST a few minutes, we could use the ability to forget about all the bad news, like rallies and protests in the Middle East, then closer home, of news about deaths due to dengue cases, and deaths also in landslides, floods, road mishaps.

We could forget for a few minutes news of loss of lives in Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Lybia, or in Bahrain and Myanmar, and think of something else, like looking at all these cases of violence as part of the trend towards freedom. These places are trying to push off the stage the decades-old dictators, for sweet liberty. And the thought could take you out of the dismal picture of violence in these places, and dark hours of pain.

Mercado: Council theme song?

CEBU City’s 2011 political brawls recall the 1956 Platter’s schmaltzy song: “The Great Pretender.” In one corner is Mayor Mike Rama and allies. In the other corner is a City Council that proxies for Rep. Tomas Osmeña--whose legislative performance won’t make the history books. “All are experts,” as Notre Dame University president Theodore Heshburg once said, “at practicing virtue (from) a distance.”

Cebunaos are affected by ill-fed kids, jobless migrants, collapsing aquifers, potholed roads, plastic-clogged drainage that trigger serial flashfloods, etc. This burg is also saddled with the classic “double burden” of disease: Third World ailments, like diarrhea, persist even as the toll from “modern ailments,” such as stroke and obesity, mount.

Cabaero: Continuing discussion

THE Department of Public Works and Highways held a public forum Friday on the planned construction of flyovers in busy parts of Cebu City.

The forum ended with the pro and anti positions heard but it seemed the two flyover projects already approved will push through despite calls for a master plan first before any new road structure.

Lim: When does life begin?

WHEN does life begin? Does it begin at conception? Or does it begin at fertilization?

There is no consensus even among members of the medical profession as to when life begins.

Tabada: House rules

THE RECENT separate reports of demonic possession make me wonder: Is the craving to communicate with the unknown just a novelty for the young or a preoccupation among those already pierced by the twinges of mortality?

I watched on the news several people restrain youths after they played spirit of the glass or the coin. Male and female students of different schools located in different parts of the country, the youngsters shrieked, rolled their eyes and talked unintelligibly when a cross was pressed against different parts of their body.

Editorial: Rama can’t just rant against council

IT IS wrong to say Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama did not expect the city council to, this time around, put his budgetary proposals to deeper scrutiny. The signs were there weeks before he submitted to the council his supplemental budget (SB) 2.

Sign 1: former mayor and now south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña called the members of the council to a dinner meeting.

Libre: Jam’s dance

MELODI Jam was born to dance. Her mother, Debbie, danced in social functions and competitions in Fairchild Semiconductors while carrying her, our only daughter, in her growing tummy.

Wenceslao: IDC’s Rabacal must be joking

I AM sure that the surprise of members of the Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) of the Regional Development Council (RDC) was feigned when they were told of the disparity in the cost between classrooms built by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and those built by the private sector.

I could even imagine IDC chairman Emmanuel “Manny” suppressing a smile when he asked: “Is there a kickback (grease money for DPWH officials)?” He knows the answer to that question, of course.

Nalzaro: Is Coast Guard sleeping on its job?

SHIPPING magnate Chester Cokaliong will tender a grand thanksgiving party for his friends, business associates, clients and partners in the industry at the Marco Plaza Hotel Hotel tonight for the prestigious awards and recognition he received recently.

Chester was awarded by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) last June as Entrepreneur of the Year. He was also one of the Garbo sa Sugbo awardees of the Provincial Government during the Province's founding anniversary early this month for the same field of endeavor, especially for his contribution to the shipping and maritime industry.

Barrita: No stones uncast

CEBU City Mayor Mike Rama has just arrived from his “fruitful” five-day travel to China, where he visited the cities of Wuhan (nine million people) and Quanzhou in Fujian Province.

He reported that prominent Filipino businessmen such as Henry Sy and Joseph Gaisano trace their lineage in Fujian Province because he saw their pictures in a museum in Quanzhou City.

Carvajal: Dark clouds

THE efforts of certain individuals to restore Cebu City’s physical beauty are admirable.

Editorial: No more stopping DPWH

TO BUILD or not to build. For the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), that is no longer the question as it will reportedly go ahead with the plan to construct flyovers at the Gen. Maxilom Ave.-M.J. Cuenco Ave. and Gorordo Ave.-Archbishop Reyes Ave. intersections.

Funding for the flyover projects was secured by Rep. Rachel Marguerite “Cutie” del Mar, whose father Raul littered the north district, during his many terms as congressman, not only with flyovers but also with skywalks and barangays buses painted with the likeness of the father-daughter team to remind constituents of “serbisyo del Mar.”

Roperos: War against poverty

IF I were to believe the claim of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in a letter to me in connection with an earlier column I wrote about alleviating poverty among our people, I would say that the government is succeeding in its efforts to improve the plight of our poor.

In a story in this daily yesterday on the government project called “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” or 4Ps, the Department of Education (DepEd) in the city claimed that there has been a marked increase in enrolment this school year (104,353) compared with that in 2010-2011 (99,231).

Wenceslao: From South Hills to Monterrazas

I GOT an invitation from Anne Marie Conejero of Graphic FX to yesterday’s press conference called by Genvi Development Corp., the developer of Monterrazas de Cebu, on the flooding in Guadalupe. Anna added this note to the invite: “Since you have written about the flood issue in your paper, we are hoping that you could attend and see Monterrazas’s flood control measures.”

Malilong: Marcos did something good in the end

WIKIPEDIA says that estimates of death in the current Libyan rebellion vary with figures from 2,000 to 13,000 as of June 18, meaning before the battle to liberate Tripoli. Whatever the numbers, they could only grow higher as the armed struggle escalates.

We should consider ourselves fortunate because we recovered our freedoms with very little bloodshed on either side. Our People Power revolution is the world model for effecting radical but peaceful change.

Seares: PNoy’s regret, Glo’s apology

WHEN then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2008 apologized for the "Hello Garci" tape, she said she was sorry for the "lapse in judgment" but not the election fraud.

She didn't say why she talked on 2004 election eve with Comelec's Virgilio Garcillano about poll math and the wonders of addition ("Yung dagdag, yung dagdag").

Libre: Bull-headed

SUBDIVISION developer vows to build drainage, other infra to lessen floods.

Otherwise, his investment will go down the drain.

Editorial: Logic in the DILG order

IN JANUARY last year, an Agence France Presse report listed 19 people dead when a dump truck carrying 56 people from a wedding flipped somewhere in Sagun town in Zamboanga del Sur. Police said heavy rain may have made the road slippery, even as witnesses said the driver drank heavily before the accident.

In March of the same year, nine people died and two others were injured when a dump truck on the way to Polomolok slammed into a tree in Mlang, South Cotabato. The impact of the crash threw some of the victims off the truck.

Roperos: Public transport

THERE seems to be a strong political undercurrent in the problem of meeting demands for better or convenient mobility for the people. The former needs a safe and accessible mobility to keep pace with the daily pursuit of survival; the latter needs safe and convenient facility to move around the city and the countryside.

Both needs deserve attention from the government’s service providers.

So: Be a tourist in Colon

BEFORE the year ends, we will be seeing obelisks dotting Colon, a street in Cebu City made famous for its oldness and character. An obelisk is a four-sided shaft of stone that tapers toward a pyramidal top. It’s like a marker.

You’ll find an obelisk at the end of Colon, where Mabini Street traverses. It is one of the 50 or so street markers that are supposed to tell the history of the oldest street in the Philippines, at 446 years old.

Malilong: Palace propagandists lied

THE day after the Island Ferry Fast Craft I caught fire and sank in the sea between Bohol and Cebu, the Office of the Presidential Spokesman issued a press statement praising the “immediate response" of the Philippine Coast Guard, among others, resulting in the rescue of the “majority of the manifested 75 people on board.”

Seares: Government vehicles: ‘for official use also’

THIS public official wanted to hit back at Commission on Audit (COA) and its passionate insistence that government vehicles should be "for official use only." So he had his private car bear the sign "For Official Use Also."

I don't know if COA got the message: an official's duties often can't be separated from private tasks. Most likely, COA didn't.

Espinoza: COA should continue its drive

PEOPLE in the Visayas and Mindanao should support the call of Cebu first district Rep. Eddie Gullas for Congress to investigate the excessive retail prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The retail prices of LPG in the Visayas and Mindanao are higher by almost 14 percent than those in Luzon. Findings show that LPG costs at least P100 more per 11-kilogram cylinder compared to the prices in Metro Manila.

Editorial: Seeing red plates

WHAT constitutes “official use” of a government vehicle?

Twenty-two out of 80 barangays in Cebu City either don’t know or knowingly overstepped their limits, according to a Commission on Audit (COA) memo. State auditors, after reviewing trip tickets and fuel consumption of these barangays in 2010, said these barangays’ officials ought to stop trips that are “personal” like excursions to the beach, pilgrimages and other outings.

Roperos: Use of dump trucks

WHOEVER conceived of the proposal to stop dump trucks from loading people from the barangays betrays an almost total absence of appreciation of the kind of life our people in the countryside live. There’s lack of transportation there. Or if there are other means of riding into the heart of the town, these are often expensive.