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Thursday, February 19, 2004
Speak out: Pathetic Cebu
By Angela regis dalton
Please allow me to express my views on the pathetic conditions of Cebu.
I just returned from New York to visit my family and relatives here. It has been 15 years since I was away and what I saw saddened me.
There are many tall buildings and commercial centers in Cebu now. But the people are still just so poor!
Dirty little children beg on the streets of Colon and P. del Rosario. Where are their parents and why cannot government put these children in a free school?
I visited a relative in a government hospital and saw three women share one bed.
The condition robs off the dignity of any one person there and puts you in utter depression and self-pity.
How can the condition be so pathetic? I think local and national leaders are remiss of their responsibility to set up an effective way of ensuring the welfare of citizens.
It is understandable that politicians love power, because who does not? But they should at least try to balance this love for power with satisfying public service.
For example, why does government allocate little budget for health when this is a basic right of every citizen? By ensuring health services for every child, woman, man, and elderly, they are actually making themselves more popular and therefore could be entrenched in power!
I also observed the shameful things many politicians do to promote themselves. In skywalks or government-owned vehicles, they attach their names with such statements as, "For the people of blah, blah...” “A love project of congressman or mayor blah, blah..."
How can they sound so generous but stupid when taxes are used to spend for such projects and not money from their own pockets? What a shame when they should have simply wrote: “Your taxes are working for you.”
Government leaders are answerable to the sorry condition of the citizens. I believe there has to be an accounting of where the taxes are spent and how laws are being implemented to work for the development of the city.
I also believe that Cebuanos must be assertive enough to demand for the good service that they deserve.
(February 19, 2004 issue)
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