By Christopher Quilaton
To be honest, life here in Cebu City feels like we’re always caught in the middle of a giant’s tug-of-war. Whether it’s the drama at City Hall or the “musical chairs” of mayors being suspended and replaced, the view from the sidewalk is usually the same: we’re still waiting for a bus that’s late and praying the rain doesn’t turn our street into a river. It’s hard to get excited about “Singapore-like” visions when you’re just trying to figure out if there will be water in the pipes tomorrow morning.
There’s this unique Cebuano grit, though. We joke about the traffic and the “ghost projects” over puso (hanging rice) and lechon because if we didn’t laugh, we’d probably just be angry all the time. We see the skyscrapers going up and the fancy posters for the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit. And while there’s a flicker of pride, there’s also that nagging thought: “Is any of this actually for us?” We’re the ones navigating the dust of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit construction every single day, hoping the finished product is worth the years of headaches.
What really gets to us isn’t the politics itself — it’s the feeling that the people in charge are playing a different game than the one we’re living. When the leaders spend more time fighting in court than fixing the drainage, it’s the ordinary worker in Colon or the student in Talamban who pays the price. We don’t need grand slogans or political dynasties to save us; we just want a city that respects our time and our taxes. We’re a tough crowd to please these days, but that’s only because we know exactly how much potential this city is sitting on.