Mother nature's gone amuck!

For our special guests on our talkshow Straight from the Sky we bring you the story of Cebu's dynamic duo... no, they're not Batman and Robin, they're a couple who come from humble beginnings and from their personal experiences and hardships, was born not one, but two non-governmental organizations that has helped many poor families in Cebu City. Thus it is my great honor to have on the show, Mr. Franciso "Bimbo" Fernandez and his wife Tessie, for theirs is a story Cebuanos ought to know.

Bimbo is today the city administrator of Cebu City, but he is also the founder of the Patambayayong Foundation, Inc. an NGO that has helped a lot of homeless family's own a home, while Tessie is the founder and Executive Director of Lihok Pilipina Foundation, Inc. an NGO that has helped empower women, upholding their rights way back in the 1980's when domestic violence was virtually a taboo even from the media's perspective.

Today Lihok Pilipina is one of the finalists for the Eduardo Aboitiz Award for Outstanding Institution; one of the programs by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) Triennial Awards and Tessie is a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her outstanding achievement. See them tonight on SkyCable's channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. and see for yourself what ordinary couples can do with extraordinary work, all while raising a growing family!

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December is fast approaching and soon it will be the 1st anniversary of the tsunami disaster that killed more than 200,000 people. Indeed, Mother Nature has gone amuck... the other day an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale devastated the Kashmir region between Pakistan and India, killing close to twenty-thousand people and the body count is still rising.

Indeed, the year 2005 will go down in history as the most disaster stricken year, especially after seeing the two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita devastating the United States. This is not to mention the thousands of people killed this year by acts of terrorism all over the world.

While the Philippines hasn't been that much affected by typhoons or natural disaster this year compared to previous years, however a man-made disaster continues to plague our nation, thanks to our mindless politicians who have nothing better to do than try to grab political power long after they have been defeated in the last elections. If only our politicians are able to unite after elections for the betterment of our country, I would like to believe that the Philippines could best or equal any nation on earth!

For instance, I was proud to see the front page photo in the Sunday Inquirer, which shows that the Wow Philippines tourism campaign has come to the shores of London. Indeed, a picture paints a thousand words, and it just makes me wonder what the millions of Britons would think looking at the Wow Philippines ad on the side of the famous London cabs?

This tourism campaign on taxis reminds me of the days when Cebu was being promoted in Tokyo, Japan as "An island in the Pacific". Brochures about the fabulous white beaches of Cebu were placed behind the headrest of the cab driver and since it was free, the passenger at the back just couldn't resist but get a copy. This is why the Japanese tourists came to Cebu by the thousands in chartered flights, which eventually became regular flights from Cebu to Japan. Yes, they really didn't know that they were in violence-prone Philippines... Cebu after all was a very peaceful place.

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While Cebu continues to bask in success with our tourism industry. It shouldn't mean that we should sit on our laurels and that these tourists would always come to us. For instance, we really haven't exhausted our efforts to stop the spread of violence in Cebu. The latest killing of businessman Wilson Yu in Cabancalan should be solve as quickly as possible. Let's hope that the P100,000 reward put up by the Mandaue City Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the counterpart reward put up by Mandaue City Mayor Teddy Ouano would flush out eyewitnesses to this murder.

Another high-profile crime was the killing of that Korean tour guide supposedly by a fellow Korean tour guide. While Filipinos were not implicated in this murder, I'm sure that the news about this must have hit the newspapers of South Korea and in my book, that's enough for South Korean tourists to give second thoughts whether to come to Cebu or not.

Finally, there's the never-ending fight between the Tau Gamma Phi and Alpha Kappa Rho fraternities, who recently signed a manifesto to stop their war, yet less than an hour later an Akrho member was shot and wounded. How long can we be patient with these fraternities? Declare them illegal and that should stop them from getting new recruits!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com