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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Malilong: Mango Square and OBO
By Frank Malilong Jr.
The Other Side
Here’s good news for those planning to visit Boracay from Cebu but have been intimidated by the prospect of taking the smaller planes. You will soon have an alternative. Next month, a new player in the shipping industry will start operating a roll on, roll off (ro-ro) service between Cebu and Dumaguit.
What this means is that the traveler can bring his own vehicle on board the ship, which docks at the port of Dumaguit in Aklan. Dumaguit is less than an hour drive away from Caticlan where you can park your car before taking a pump boat to Boracay.
The vessel arrived from Korea the other day and will have its maiden run on Oct. 20. Aware of the tourism potential of the enterprise, the vessel’s owners have secured permission from the Department of Tourism to use its slogan, “Wow Philippines” in the ship’s logo.
***
I see that they have removed from the sidewalk the stairs of the comedy bar, 22nd Street. Good. Now the public can again use the sidewalk without that obstruction.
But what about the Yamaha signage only a few meters away? Did the Office of the Building Official authorize its construction? If it did not, how did it escape the official’s attention?
The city’s building inspectors may have been negligent in the case of Mango Square, Mayor Tomas Osmeña reportedly admitted. Indeed, they have been, no doubt about it.
As I have pointed out in an earlier column, had the responsible City Hall officials not been sleeping on the job, they would have been able to immediately detect the stalls that were starting to appear in Mango Square. The owners would have been timely advised not to proceed with the construction because they violated building laws and regulations.
Because no such advice came, the owners now stand to lose the hard-earned money they invested in their little stalls. The latest report said Osmeña does not only want the stalls closed, he wants them demolished.
If it’s any consolation to our building officials, it was not only their office that failed to do its job in Mango Square. The Cebu Anti-Indecency Board (Caib) was just as monumental a failure.
Caib came into the picture only after the issue had been blown up in the media.
Why wasn’t it able to do something about the supposed indecent acts being committed inside the square before it became a big issue? What did it do to address the supposed complaint of students of a nearby school about it?
The answer, I am afraid, is none.
Now, I read that the Caib has declared Cebu City as nearly pornography-free. Excuse me? How do you define pornography in the first place?
If it means the absence of hubo-hubo shows in some of the city’s bars, that is not what I hear from my friends in the Cebu City Commercial Tennis Club. Are they’re talking about different cities?
(fmmalilong@yahoo.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 6, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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