Friday, July 25, 2008
Tomas to celebrate with 1,500 guests
SENATOR Mar Roxas, whom Mayor Tomas Osmeña is endorsing as presidential bet for the 2010 elections, is in Cebu today to attend the mayor’s 25th wedding anniversary.
Osmeña will also celebrate his birthday tomorrow with 1,500 friends and barangay officials at a mall.
The anniversary was actually last Wednesday, but the mayor and his wife Margot will celebrate it today, said City Administrator Francisco Fernandez.
Roxas will arrive this afternoon and will go straight to the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) to grace an activity there.
From there, he will rest for Osmeña’s “party” tonight.
Prince Warehouse Club owner Robert Go is holding a one-day Sari-sari Store Festival at the CICC, which is expected to gather 1,600 sari-sari store owners who are club members of Prince Warehouse’s Sari-sari Store Society.
Now on its third year, the festival includes a seminar on basic accounting, inventory management and how to gain access to micro-finance institutions, which Roxas advocates.
Roxas’ staff members were in the city as early as yesterday to prepare his itinerary for today and tomorrow.
Fernandez said that for tomorrow, Roxas will join the mayor and Cebu City barangay captains in a fun walk, which is in celebration of Osmeña’s birthday, from the Malacañang sa Sugbo to the South Road Properties (SRP), where a small program will be held.
The mayor and Roxas will then proceed to the newly inaugurated Plaza Sugbo, or the park in front of the city legislative building, for a meeting with senior citizens at 9 a.m.
And at 11 a.m., they will meet with urban poor leaders to discuss the housing situation in the city.
Important
Fernandez said the meeting with the urban poor sector is particularly important, as it will serve as a follow-up of the March 29 general assembly with Vice President Noli de Castro.
On that gathering, de Castro spoke of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council’s (HUDCC) national accomplishment report, particularly on the 34,000
who availed themselves of the Pag-ibig Fund’s Abot Kaya housing loan.
Urban poor leaders, though, were disappointed because they expected more concrete from the vice president, who is the country’s HUDCC chairman.
On Osmeña’s senior citizenship, he and his family will welcome the occasion with a party that will have up to 1,500 friends and barangay officials in attendance. The party will be held at the SM Trade Hall tomorrow.
Osmeña does not have anything to wish for or any message to give, but if he had his way, he would want to go on a vacation outside the country on his 60th birthday.
Presidential greeting
“I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, I just want to go around the world but they all want to have this party so I guess I’m under duress. I don’t want people to think that I’m avoiding them,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
During her visit at the City Hall yesterday, the President gave the mayor her birthday greetings.
The mayor’s wife, Margot, is also celebrating her birthday today and last Wednesday, they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
In the past, the Osmeñas preferred to go on a vacation for the triple celebration but on the prodding of their friends, the mayor said he will go along with the party here.
“There’s nothing much to expect from me except that I’m going to be a senior citizen. So on my birthday, I’m going to make everybody jealous. I’m going to have a senior citizen’s card and enjoy a 40 percent discount, I’ll change it from 20 to 40 percent, bahala na mo tanan,” Osmeña jokingly said. (RHM/LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 25, 2008 issue)
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