Sunday, March 30, 2008 Malilong: President should tell Cebuanos the truth By Frank Malilong The Other Side
MAYBE, President Arroyo enjoys a wellspring of goodwill in Cebu.
The presence of so many elected officials pledging their unqualified support for Mrs. Arroyo last Friday must have been a sight for sore eyes insofar as the beleaguered leader and her allies are concerned. Her “how can they bring me down?” was a giveaway.
Note that a couple of weeks ago, her nemesis, Rodolfo Lozada Jr., was cold-shouldered when he came here, drawing only the militants and their cousins and neighbors to the University of San Carlos gym where he spoke. Lozada and his handlers came here with high expectations but left bitterly disappointed with the whistleblower snidely referring to Cebu as the “Archdiocese of Malacanang.”
Lozada is lionized wherever he goes except in Cebu. Mrs. Arroyo is greeted with boos and catcalls everywhere she visits but not in Cebu. All the surveys uniformly say that she is the most unpopular president in the country’s history but tell that to a Cebuano and fifty to one, he’ll ask, what survey?
She is loved by Cebuanos and she feels it. She says she loves Cebu, too, but she has to show it. How? By giving us the honor of hearing direct from her lips the truth about the three biggest issues that had hounded and continue to hound her administration.
First, the Garci tapes. We know that there was no cheating when we gave her a resounding one million margin over the late Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004 but what really happened in Mindanao? What was she sorry for?
Second, the fertilizer scam. Why did then agriculture undersecretary Jocjoc Bolante have to flee to the United States? Why has Malacañang not lifted a finger to bring Bolante home? What does he know that the administration or whoever it was who engineered his self-exile does not want us to hear?
Third, the national broadband network contract. Okay, the deal has been aborted but why the attempt to do a Bolante on Lozada? Why the extra concern for his “security” upon his arrival at the Manila airport from Hongkong? What does Romulo Neri know that he doesn’t want to tell?
Telling the truth on all the above could cost the President some friendships and other relationships but isn’t it that when you love someone, you’re willing to make the sacrifice?
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I am saddened by the loss of the old and historic Oslob church. I used to attend mass there with the late Sol Abines early in the decade when the latter had a run-in with the parish priest of Santander. I spoke at his funeral in the church only last month.
What is sadder is that the building could have been saved if the town’s firemen had been properly trained and equipped. Stories about the fireman on duty just looking at the fire before going back to his desk and about townspeople pushing the lone serviceable fire truck are not very reassuring.
When I went to Boljoon the week before the Holy Week, a fire prevention program was being held at the gymnasium. I was horrified to read later that town’s fire engine failed to respond to the Oslob fire because it was out of commission.
I do not blame the mayors of Oslob and Boljoon because apparently, they do not have control over the fire department, which is a national agency. I think it’s about time that we localize, rather than nationalize, the firefighting service.
