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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Garcia: Dividing plus
By Pablo John Garcia
Breakfast at Noon
When tropical storm Auring threatened to whip Cebu late last week then, quite inexplicably, reconsidered, a friend sent me a text message. He said I should thank the three members of Congress who are proposing to divide Cebu into four provinces.
“Y?” I asked Joel the Trekkie.
Well, it seems that Auring, upon reaching what weathermen call our “area of responsibility,” hesitated for a long time then decided to radio Storm Center.
“Storm Center,” Auring broke. “I need guidance.”
“What’s the problem, Auring?” Storm Manager replied.
“You sent me to Cebu…”
“Roger.”
“Well, I need specifics.”
“Cebu. What could be more specific than that?”
“From the ground, I’m hearing that there’s a Cebu del Norte, Del Sur, Occidental…”
“Head back to headquarters,” Storm Manager ordered. “These people are trying to confuse us!”
Auring had no choice.
So there are advantages. There’s no reason why one should be so one-sided about it.
Like my holiday plans. While my friends are off to some distant island somewhere in the Philippines, or in Asia, I’m stuck with my usual unimpressive one-and-a-half hour trip to Bitoon, Dumanjug, Cebu. When friends discussed travel plans in the past, I usually just cleared my throat and mumbled something about going “somewhere.”
Not anymore. This year, I’ll say: “Holy Week? Oh, I’ll be driving to three separate provinces this year.”
A three-province tour. You’ll have to admit that’s quite impressive, even if that meant merely sampling the chicharon in Carcar, D’ Original Cebu, stopping for gas at Barili, Occidental Cebu and gorging on manok bisaya in Dumanjug, Cebu del Sur.
Dividing Cebu should have endless possibilities, as a tourism sales pitch.
And it’s good for the economy, too. Before, you spent maybe 12 liters of gas for that trip, and you didn’t even get out of the same province. Now, for the same 12 liters of gas, you’ll be able to drive through three. That’s value for money.
I know Globelines and PLDT are worried about what this proposal would do to their “One Province. One Rate” promo.
To these telephone companies I say: “Hello?” If you kept your rates the same even under a four-province setup, you’ll be able to claim that at least in this part of the country, there are no long distance charges for calls made from one province to three others. That’s even better than “One Province. One Rate.” That’s social responsibility.
It’s good for the weather, tourism, the economy and the telecommunications industry. So maybe people should stop complaining. All four peoples.
(pablojohn(at)gmail(dot)com)
(March 24, 2005 issue)
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