CBCP holds 115th plenary session in Cebu

Cebu’s hosting of the 37th annual Sinulog Festival last week is over and done without any major incidents, as it was due to the order of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña for a no-parties, no-drinking ban for liquor or beer within 300 yards from the Sinulog Parade route. Also the weather cooperated perfectly. While it rained early Sunday morning, the skies cleared and the rest of the day was gloomy, which gave everyone a nice shade.

With the Sinulog festivities done, it is time for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to hold its 115th plenary assembly in Cebu City in order to tackle internal and church matters. As we already pointed out, this week’s plenary session by the CBCP is being done in Cebu also in preparation for the up and coming 500-year celebration of the Christianization of the Philippines in 2021. But there are major obstacles that the Catholic Church faces under the Duterte administration, it is the up and coming anti-family bills, like divorce and same sex marriage, which hopefully our Bishops could unite the Laity and fight it together.

If there was any untoward incident that marred our Sinulog Festivities, it is that vehicular accident last Saturday in Barangay Legaspi, in the Municipality of Alegria where seven Filipino-American doctors and nurses were killed in a road accident when their Toyota Grandia struck head on into a tree. Most of the fatalities came from New York and Chicago where they went to Oslob for Whale Shark watching and were on their way to Kawasan Falls when this tragedy struck.

While this incident may not be Sinulog related, somehow, Filipino-Americans in the medical field would come to Cebu not just to enjoy the Sinulog Festival but also to do their annual medical missions. It is a way that Filipino Americans who are successful in their medical field would conduct as a way of giving back to their home country. They were supposed to go on a medical mission to Camiguin Island when the accident happened. I understand that the driver surrendered to the police and admitted that he lacked sleep and most probably slept on the wheel.

Just last Friday, we wrote in our column in The Freeman about that horrendous accident that happened last Thursday inside the Tunnel on the Coastal Road where Cebuanos first witnessed a nine-vehicle collision. This type of multiple collision is common in the US, Canada or Europe especially during the snow or wet season. But since there was no rain last Thursday, we can only blame the drivers involved in this road accident… first for driving faster than usual and for not keeping the proper distance between vehicles especially when one is running at a higher speed. Cebuanos have to learn now to drive in freeway conditions. Alas, Cebu still has to get its first freeway.

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I was a private sector director at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) for 20 years (until the year 2010) and an assigned director at the defunct Philippine Aviation Security Services Corp. (PASSCOR) which was brought to its knees by the previous government and I have come to personally know the owners of MIASCOR ground handling operations, notably its chairman Ricky Delgado of Citadel Holdings as they were our partners in PASSCOR.

Suddenly there is a luggage theft incident that struck MIASCOR, which I learned MIASCOR has already paid for that mishap, but it seems to me that this was to trigger a decision by Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to no longer renew the MIASCOR contract which expired on March 31, 2017. I smell something fishy here… Why did MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal deal with MIASCOR on a month-to-month basis when he could have renewed its contract already? What was he waiting for?

Could there be someone close to the powers-that-be who maybe interested to take over the MIASCOR account? In fairness to MIASCOR, for the many years it has been in this business… they were never involved in any major issues except this recent one. Just to remind our readers of the mishap that happened at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), which was running smoothly until the Aquino regime changed the maintenance company and gave it to a neophyte, then that’s when the troubles of the MRT began. I hope this problem won’t be repeated in MIAA if and when it replaces MIASCOR with another company with no track record in airline ground handling.

I should have written this before, but during the time of NAIA General Manager Jose Angel Honrado, he terminated the PASSCOR contract, which was proudly an Aviation Security company that trained its guards on airline operations like ground handling and passenger services. When GM Honrado terminated PASSCOR he put in place a “No ID, No Entry” security guards with no aviation training which is why NAIA became notorious for the infamous “Laglag Bala” and other related incidents. Abangan!

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