T'was the shortest New Year's Eve fireworks
Before we celebrated last Christmas, we wrote a column for our readers to expect a wet Christmas, but apparently that didn't happen. We had wonderful weather last Christmas. However the newspapers reported for us to prepare for a wet New Year's Eve. Again, we had great weather in New Year's Eve and most of New Year's Day, but it did rain on the evening of January 1 due to typhoon Agaton. This only proves to one and all that predicting the weather hasn't improved much despite advances in technology.
As usual, the Avila-Segura families gathered in the Avila ancestral home, now owned by my sister Adela Avila Kono for the traditional New Year's Eve greeting. But last New Year's Eve was probably the shortest pyrotechnics or fireworks celebration that I have ever witnessed. The fireworks started exploding five minutes before midnight and exploded just like in the past, but ended fifteen minutes later.
My parents constructed our house in Capitol Hills in 1959 and ever since we have celebrated our New Year's celebration there. In the old days, the only firecracker explosion was focused in downtown Cebu City, as we were the only house behind the Capitol building aside from the Villalon Mansion. Beverly Hills was not yet in existence and in those days, my father would drive us downtown in our 1948 Dodge, specifically along Magallanes St. where the Chinese businessmen who lived on top of their stores would throw "Camel" firecrackers to the street down below.
Cebu City eventually grew, Beverly Hills started having many houses, and Maria Luisa became the premier place for the rich to live in. Whenever we celebrate New Year's Eve, the pyrotechnics would start by 10 p.m. and increase in intensity until midnight to greet the New Year and end by 2 a.m. That's how long we could see the fireworks. But then it also resulted in many injuries like people's hands being blown to bits.
But with the fireworks display the shortest that I have seen in memory, I wasn't surprised when Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III held a press conference early January 1 to announce that there was a 68 percent reduction in fireworks injuries this year. I would like to believe that the DOH information was focused in Metro Manila. I would like to bet that Metro Cebu would even have a lower average because of the fewer fireworks this year. Now the DOH reported that they would vie for zero injuries next year with a total ban of firecrackers. All I can say is good luck! New Year's Eve greetings and fireworks go hand-in-hand whether they like it or not.
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One thing that old Cebuanos like me enjoyed very much yesterday was the near-zero traffic in our main roads. It really reminded me of the Cebu City that I used to know, where traffic was unheard of. This was why even if our old MacArthur jeep was a gas guzzler we really didn't feel it because there was no traffic to slow us down. Today our millennials only know of a Cebu City that is traffic congested.
Meanwhile, I would like to task our friends at the Department of Engineering and Public Works to continue with their asphalting our potholed city roads. They already fixed Juana Osmeña St. except they didn't go all the way to Mango Ave. But the worst street to my mind is Rosal Street, which is parallel to Escario St. It is one of those city streets most heavily used because it is a shortcut from Escario St. passing by Harold's Hotel, frequented by the political Osmeñas. So here's hoping that DEPW will take notice and fix this road.
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One of the big news awaited by many was the news that Malacañang was ready to release a list of officials dismissed over alleged irregularities as President Rodrigo Duterte is set to fire another official this week. This was announced by presidential spokesman Harry Roque who told the media that Pres. Duterte informed him about his plan to fire the official last Sunday. So this is the million-peso question: Who gets the presidential boot as the first official fired for corruption in 2018?
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