It's going to be a wet Christmas
For our special presentation on our talkshow on Straight from the Sky, I have a one-on-one interview with a good friend and a proud Cebuano, Mr. Joe Soberano III, who wanted to become a politician even if he was Vice President of Cebu Holdings, Inc. a subsidiary of the Ayala Group, but something happened and he lost his political bid and ended up creating the Cebu Land Masters, Inc. (CLI) one of Cebu's most successful realty companies. Joe is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CLI that he created in 2003.
CLI is one of the handful of Cebu-based realty companies that achieved a great amount of success in this very competitive market, dominated by Manila-based realty firms. Yet CLI went further and had an Initial Public Offering in the Philippine Stock Exchange last May. Not bad for a 13-year-old company, which to date has reached sales of P2.17 billion, a 41 percent increase from their 2015 sales. CLI's net income was pegged at P702 million, which is 30 percent higher than the previous year. Last October 18 Ernst and Young awarded Soberano as Industry Entrepreneur of the Year in a banquet at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel, no doubt a huge feather in his hat.
So watch Mr. Joe Soberano, a Cebuano entrepreneur who built one of Cebu's most successful realty businesses, tonight on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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Typhoon Urduja (international code "Kai-Tak) is a typhoon that should have entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) last November but only God can control the weather. So like it or not, halfway in December we got this typhoon hitting the Visayas, notably in Northern Cebu and Leyte and Samar. Looking at the Facebook photos of my friends, you can see that typhoon Urduja had done considerable damage. Notable of all is the main road to Daanbantayan.
No doubt, thousands upon thousands of passengers were stranded in many ports from Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Samar and Sorsogon. Yesterday, typhoon Urduja was expected to make landfall near Borongan City in Samar, then on to Calbayog City. Thankfully yesterday the sun came out, although typhoon Urduja was still in the vicinity because of its slow movement. Hopefully by today, typhoon Urduja would already be out of our area.
But unfortunately, we cannot expect clear weather especially by Christmas time because weather analysts are saying that while typhoon Urduja makes a graceful exit from our area, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration through officer-in-charge Alfredo Quiblat Jr. said another potential typhoon which will be called "Vinta" when it enters the PAR will be disturbing our Christmas season, just like what typhoon Urduja did.
When typhoon Urduja was first spotted near the PAR, many people warned that it could be another potential deadly super typhoon because it appeared in the same area where super typhoon Yolanda appeared. Thankfully, typhoon Urduja wasn't that strong a typhoon, although she still did some damage. We can only hope that Vinta won't be as strong as Yolanda. So keep on praying that we will only get wet weather this Christmas
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One of the best news I got last week from the Duterte administration came from no less than Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte who said that he wants Efren Peñaflorida, the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year awardee who became known worldwide for his efforts in educating kids in slums, to head the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that Special Assistant to the President Sec. Bong Go has been tasked to look for Peñaflorida, who started the "Kariton Klassroom" to bring education to poor children, which caught the eye of the CNN who named him CNN Hero for the Year 2009. Honestly we haven't heard from him since he bagged that award. But yes, I believe that he should be heading the PCUP, which should be a great thing for our poor people.
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