Sunday, July 08, 2007 7-7-7 catches town leaders’ fancy
THE once-in-a-lifetime alignment of 7-7-7, which many believe could bring luck to traders and newlyweds, may have also caught the fancy of Carcar City officials.
The newly converted city, known as the gateway of the south, will now commemorate its cityhood anniversary every July 7 following yesterday’s ratification of its Charter.
On mass motion, the City Council, presided by Vice Mayor Nicepuro Apura, approved the measure on its commemorative special session that coincidentally fell on July 7, 2007 or 7-7-7, which many consider lucky, special, unique or a perfect wedding date.
The City Council members who were present in the historic ratification were Nestor Velez, Pedro Padin, Algerico Sandoy, Edgardo P. Oca, Aquilo Rentillosa, Danilo Satinitigan, Dominardo Rojo Sr., Harlod Nacua, and Daniel Daclan (Association of Barangay Councils president).
“This date will not be repeated in many years,” said Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district), who drafted Republic Act (RA) 9436 or the Carcar Cityhood, in his speech.
Exactly a week ago, Carcaranons ratified RA 9436 in a plebiscite that garnered 13,483 “yes” votes or 28 percent of the city’s 47,833 registered voters.
Officials noted that many had abstained from voting because the “no” votes totaled only 1,748.
“It’s not only three lucky 7s but five,” added Gullas.
All seven
The Cebuano lawmaker said that July 7, a Saturday, fell on the seventh day of the week, seventh day of the month, seventh month of the year and seventh year of the millennium.
He attributed the fifth seven to the 7 a.m. mass, officiated by Rev. Fr. Bernard Oyao at the Carcar City Hall conference room.
The scheduled Saturday weddings at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish Church prompted local officials to hold the mass at the City Hall building.
“But it’s not only five but six,” declared Carcar City Mayor Patrick Barcenas in his reply after the passage of the Charter.
He took the sixth lucky seven from Carcar itself as the seventh component city of Cebu Province.
Carcar is the second town in the first district to become a city, next to Talisay whose cityhood was formalized during the Dec. 30, 2000 plebiscite.
Barcenas assured that they would take to heart Gullas’s advice to unite for the sake of the city’s progress and rise up to the challenge of those who voted “no” to cityhood.
“Whatever project you may have in mind be in education, health, infrastructure and livelihood, always do it for the poor Carcaranons,” said Gullas, who spoke before the City Council members and government workers at the unfinished SP session hall.
Gullas admitted that he really has a personal bias for number seven as his lucky number.
“My name has seven letters. G, which is the first letter of my family name, is also the seventh letter in the alphabet,” he said.
In his younger days, Gullas said his basketball jersey always carries the number seven. As a lawmaker, he first joined the seventh Congress in 1969, representing Cebu’s old third district.
Instead of using the Congressmen’s official vehicle plate number 8, Gullas said he opted to get a special “ERG-777” plate for his service vehicle in Manila. ERG is his initials.
But whatever the number seven brings to Carcar in the years to come, Gullas is confident that the city’s Charter Day is going to be one anniversary that will be hard to forget by the Carcaranons.
“It’s simple and easy. Just remember the triple seven,” he added. (GC)
