Celebrating 30 years as a journalist

Today I celebrate (although very quietly) my 30th anniversary as a journalist as it was 30 years today when my mentor, the late Sir Maximo V. Soliven gave me my first press card, which was signed by him as publisher and Mr. Antonio V. Roces as Editor of the Philippine Star. If there was anything I planned for my life to be, being a journalist was never on my radar screen.

But then some kind of intervening, unseen forces do come into your life and does a life changing paradigm shift on you and this is exactly what happened to me 30-years ago when I met Sir Max Soliven, he turned me into a journalist and what a lifelong journey it has been. As I was taken in by the Philippine Star, a Manila-based newspaper, it wasn’t easy to be accepted here in a very close knit Cebu media. But through the 30years with the Philippine Star, then The Freeman and then with my Talkshow on SkyCable and later MyTV, it has been a great honor and privilege to serve our Cebu community.

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Ever since he won his re-election bid, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has been a disappointment even to his own friends who thought that by now he would have changed for the better. But the last straw was when the National Police Commission pulled out his operational control of the Police something we never expect would happen to Cebu City and I’m glad that a few days ago, he huffed over to visit Police Regional Director Noli G. Taliño in Camp Sergio Osmeña to have a dialogue with the police.

Whether we like it or not, a Mayor of our City must have some sort of control over the police. Otherwise, he would end up passing the buck on our peace and order problems when they arise or get worse. So the sooner Osmeña gets back operational control of the police, the better for all of us. With the crime rate going down fast, we must also look at the other problems plaguing Cebu City like the traffic problem which can only be solve through infrastructure development.

Meanwhile I read in the news about a new approach that Osmeña is trying to pursue in our garbage collection system whereby instead of hiring new garbage collectors or buying new trucks (although we need new ones) he will experiment with this new method in Barangay Lahug by giving sardines to anyone who will take their trash to the garbage trucks rather than the garbage trucks running around the Barangay getting their garbage.

While this idea is new to Cebu City, I recall that this is the scheme which the City of Curritiba in Brazil used to entice the poor to get free tickets to ride on their Stairless Bus System when the poor takes their garbage to the garbage collection area in exchange for bus tickets. This is something we should have done a long time ago. But let’s see if this experiment works and while we’re at it. Why only sardines? Man doesn’t live by sardines alone! So good luck on this experiment, Mayor!

Speaking about the poor, surely by now you must have noticed that along Juana Osmeña Street by the sidewalk along St. Theresa’s College you will see a lot of homeless people begging for money or food. You can also see them as you exit from the Redemptorist Church as you drive towards Mango Avenue. What I would like to know is what the Department of Social Welfare and Development is doing about this now that Dinky Soliman is no longer with the DSWD? What I would like to find out are the concrete programs under the Duterte administration on how to help these poor people rather than just leave them to beg on our streets? 

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While the Duterte administration has increased their budgets especially in infrastructure spending as enunciated by Department of Budget and Management Secretary Ben Diokno whom I had a long talk two weeks ago during the 30th anniversary of the Philippine Star in Shangri-La Global City, but few people know that Duterte has also embarked on an austerity program, whereby Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has ordered officials and employees of the Department of Finance and its attached agencies to stop holding meetings and other work-related events in expensive private venues.

The fact alone that Duterte takes a commercial flight to Manila and back to Davao City is a huge savings because he doesn’t use the Presidential plane. In fact during a briefing with the military in Maguindanao, Duterte promised the soldiers that he would convert the presidential plane into an air ambulance so that the wounded soldiers can be ferried immediately from the battlefield and into a hospital, something that a Commander-in-Chief  has never done in the past.

So we shouldn’t expect three-hour lunches on Manila’s top hotels in the Duterte administration.

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