Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Speak out: Make Metro Cebu great for us By Joseph Valenzuela
YES, the 12th Asean Summit was a success, and some delegates did say Cebu’s hosting might be difficult to surpass.
Of course, the delegates can say that because their stay was too short and they traveled with police escorts through city streets exclusively reserved for them: newly paved, adorned with flowers and without the abusive jeepney, taxi, tricycle, truck and trisikad drivers blocking their way or making their travel cumbersome.
I guess that had the delegates stayed a little longer, traveled the Metro Cebu streets like ordinary Cebuanos and walked among us without the VIP treatment, they certainly would have made a different comment.
Nonetheless, we are thankful that we were successful in impressing our visitors on how clean, orderly, and beautiful our cities are.
Now that the delegates are gone, I think the challenge is for our government officials to make the fantasy that they painted for our visitors a reality for all of us Cebuanos.
They should start getting rid of abusive jeepney, taxi, truck, trisikad drivers and jaywalking pedestrians, sidewalk vendors, not to mention thieves and robbers, drug lords and drug addicts.
Please implement the laws.
Cebu is a great metropolis.
Let us make it one not just for the visitors, but most importantly for us.
