Colon night market, a serious security risk!

One of the things I used to do during my stint, as chairman of the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM) was to assign one motorcycle cop to just look for potholes in our roads. This is done every week so that if there is no asphalt available at that time, we simply patch things with anapog until there is asphalt available. But have you seen our roads in Cebu City lately? Again motorists seem to live with the reality that we need to memorize the locations of our potholes in order to avoid falling into them.

Perhaps Mayor Tomas Osmeña is too busy to even notice that we have many roads that need refurbishing. But in his previous life as a Mayor, potholes were not a problem because every now and then, he always comes up with his "Asphalt Storm" projects to rid us of the potholes that dot our roads. Alas, they have totally forgotten that we live in a tropical climate where we get rains that flood our streets and destroy the asphalt. What pains me here is that when columnists write about our roads, it only means one thing, someone in Cebu City Hall whose job is to fix our roads doesn't deserved to be paid his salary because he is goofing off!

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A couple of days ago, The Freeman headlined a report by Superintendent Julian Entoma, Chief of the Regional Intelligence Division-7 that they got reports that four to six alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf entered Dumaguete City and were headed for Cebu. Now I gathered that they have photographs or caricatures of these potential terrorists who might be seated next to you in a jeepney. So the question is what kind of preparations are we doing in order to prevent these people from exploding a bomb so they could tell the world that the Abu Sayyaf are not really on the run, but have moved to the urban centers?

If you folks didn't know, last Monday, the City of Cebu embarked once more on the scheme that I hate the most holding a night market in Colon St. What perfect time for officials of Cebu City to allow a night market along Colon St.? Mind you, it was only last Sept. 2 when a bomb ripped through the Roxas Night Market in Davao City, which ended up with 15 persons killed, including a pregnant woman. Surely we have learned our lessons from that deadly incident, which could be very detrimental to our tourism industry?

I have no doubt that whoever bombed the Davao Night Market wanted to embarrass Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte to show to the world that Pres. Duterte could not even assure his own citizens in Davao that they can live in peace. And here we are in Cebu City opening up a night market as if to "invite" the Abu Sayyaf and tell them where to plant their bomb? I dare say that Mayor Osmeña should immediately stop this nonsense because the night market only makes money for a few people who work inside the City Hall who already have their own "suki" for stalls in the night market. It is a crack in our security; therefore, we must plug whatever leaks we have.

Mind you, it is not everyday that Cebu City gets a threat from the Abu Sayyaf whom we believe are really on the run. After all, the Armed Forces of the Philippines   have conducted a relentless military campaign against the lair of the Abus in their camps in Basilan and Jolo. Let me point further that having a night market in Colon St. is difficult to secure unlike in shopping malls, where the security guards can check people who bring huge bags inside the mall. In Colon St., they are no doors so it really is a security nightmare.

With the Kalag-kalag weekend fast approaching, we also need to beef up security in our cemeteries. Remember, there was a grenade blast in a Talisay cemetery on Nov.1, 1988, which killed seven people and this is something we should never forget. So I certainly hope that Mayor Osmeña would heed our call to stop the Night Market in Colon St. before it becomes one major embarrassment for Cebu, and please don't say that I didn't warn you.

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This report was printed on page 6 of The Freeman last Wednesday, but if you ask me, the City of Cebu should now open up to Talisay City Mayor Eduardo "Eddiegul" Gullas's suggestion to use the sanitary landfill in Barangay Tapul. Right now, Cebu City has no choice but to close the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill and it's only alternative is the landfill in the town of Consolacion, which in my book is just too far from Cebu City.

Perhaps the City of Cebu should formally ask the City of Talisay for their terms in using their sanitary landfill. We can certainly use it as our alternative when we close the Inayawan Sanitary landfill. But I still say that a bigger more permanent site should be considered by the City of Cebu that is not far from our city limits. Thank you, Mayor Eddiegul!