Pit Senyor to all our readers!

We are now in the middle of the Sinulog Week… the Fiesta of Cebu honoring the Señor Sto. Niño. On Sunday, Jan. 21st, will be the Sinulog Parade, which will be preceded by the Fluvial Parade on Saturday dawn and the solemn procession on Saturday evening. Like in the past, we expect that millions of devotees from nearby Bohol, Negros or Leyte, which are only a few hours by boat to Cebu, would flock into Cebu City to honor the Holy Child Jesus in what has been dubbed as one of Asia’s biggest religious festivals and the nation’s top tourism drawer!

This is why Cebu is so blessed because we have this annual celebration at the start of the New Year. Remember what the Lord said in Matt. 6:33, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he will give you everything you need.” While we in Cebu are indeed blessed, however this year has started with two major fires, the first one last Jan. 6 when the Metro Ayala Department Store burned for nearly three days. A few days ago a conflagration struck the thickly populated Barangay Pasil where some 283 houses were burned to the ground affecting 634 families.

Perhaps the bigger tragedy to befall Cebu City this year was when Mayor Tomas Osmeña returned from his US trip and saw the burnt out hulk of the Metro Ayala Department Store and declared his proposal to limit the height of buildings to only four storys high. Funny why this issue came out of his head when the Metro Ayala Department Store was only six storys high. With that he announced that he has put on hold some 31 construction applications for building permits… which he might decide this July. This is bad news for the construction industry and the poor workers who could have found work when those buildings are being constructed.

This is also disturbing news for the real estate sector who have asked for advances for their condo units with a promise to finish their buildings at an agreed time. Alas, these have been put on hold. Mind you, since Mayor Osmeña was elected back to the Mayor’s office he has taken an anti-business stand, targeting SM Prime Holdings who has stopped their plans to construct Cebu’s SMX Convention Center and our ARENA. We can only hope and pray to the Sto. Niño to open the mind of Mayor Osmeña.

Meanwhile, Cebu prelate Arch. Jose Palma announced that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) would be holding the 115th plenary assembly in Cebu City to tackle internal and church matters. Let us hope and pray that the Catholic Church would unite the faithful to fight the up and coming anti-family bills, like divorce and same-sex marriage. This plenary session by the CBCP is rightfully being done in Cebu also in preparation for the up and coming 500th celebration of the Christianization of the Philippines in the Year 2021. So Pit Senyor to all our readers!

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Now that many Filipinos are taking short vacations to many tourism sites in the Philippines, call it timely that Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte recently inaugurated the new communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management systems (CNS/ATM) with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

The CNS/ATM is a state-of-the-art computer and satellite-based air traffic management technology which is similar to that being used by Australia, Taiwan and other European countries. With the use of CNS/ATM systems, air travel is expected to be more definite, aircraft identification to be more established, and safety of security of passengers are guaranteed.

This system also brings with it better air traffic flow and space management, which optimizes airport capacity and efficient use of airspace that will in turn minimize delays by helping aircraft operators meet their departure and arrival schedules. As they say, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” so the only way we can find out if this system works is when we have less delays when we take our flights especially coming from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Meanwhile, that colored photograph in the front page of the Philippine STAR last Tuesday of a Boeing 737-800 from Pegasus Airlines that veered off the runway in Trabzon Airport in Turkey reminded me that we should continue pushing for a National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB) law. Let’s hope the Senate pushes for this important facility for the country.

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Our friends who read my column about that statue for comfort women did not realize that the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) do not have any statues for our brave Filipino guerrillas. We hope that Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada would do something about this issue.

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