Sporting events should not worsen traffic

It was only last June 25 when the Philippine Accessibility Disability Services, Inc. (PADs) won the Paradragon Category for the second time in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival in Victoria Harbor. They fought teams from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and Singapore in the second year for the race that included physically disabled rowers. The first time they won the Paradragon boat was race last June 5, 2017 but they got little media mileage due to the fact that this was an international dragon boat race.

But when I interviewed them for our special presentation on Straight from the Sky, it was only then that I came to realize that the PADs Dragon Boat team joined 160 other teams for the main Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival where they placed fifth against able-bodied teams who have been racing in Hong Kong for many years already.

They even won against the able-bodied Philippine Team. Although fifth place didn't earn them any medals, however they won the hearts and minds of Overseas Filipino Workers, many of whom witnessed the sporting race. They have been invited to join the dragon boat race in Chicago by the end of July and hopefully they can get Philippine Airlines to sponsor them. For this year's race, the International Marketing Group, Kaiser Health Group, MB-Life Insurance, and MyTV sponsored PADs.

So tonight we interview the Gold winners of PADs starting with team manager JP Ecarma Maunes, team captain Arnold Balais, coach Christian Ian Sy, and Rey Mangayo and Enrique Sanchez, whom I have to name, but the other gold-winning rowers are with us also on TV. So watch this very historic show 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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First off, allow me to congratulate Liloan Mayor Christina Garcia-Frasco for refusing to close the two major thoroughfares the North Coastal Road and the National Road for eight hours to accommodate the Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 Philippine Asia Pacific Championship slated to be held on August 5, 2018. It's about time that Sunrise Events should not only look at the plight of their sporting events, but the impact it has done to hassle Cebuanos who have nothing to do with the event.

Like it or not, while we do welcome the Ironman events held annually, they have really caused traffic congestion in the areas they are held in here in Cebu and it's about time that the rest of the public that has nothing to do with the Ironman events not be affected by this event. Again, we praise Mayor Frasco for telling the Sunrise Events the reality of our traffic.

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At this point in time, I'm still surprised that the Philippine National Police or the National Bureau of Investigation has not come up with a full-blown investigation into the killing of Senior Police Officer 1 Adonis Dumpit. Apparently, Police Regional Office-7 director Chief Debold Sinas wants us to believe only one story…that Dumpit was involved in the illegal drugs trade and got himself killed by his fellow policemen.

Perhaps Sinas should consider one major issue; that many of us in the Cebu media have come to know Dumpit quite well and consider him a friend. So the least we expect from our PNP is for them to conduct a probe into this incident, only then can we in the media decide whether or not the police told us the truth about Dumpit. So please, Sir Sinas, don't take the media for a ride!

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The Social Weather Station came up with a survey where 61 percent of Filipinos that they surveyed are against same-sex marriage. This means, most Filipinos do not want gay marriage like many other nations have allowed. This can only be traced to the spirituality of the Filipino people. When President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte blasphemed God by calling him stupid, Filipinos from different Christian communities came out to chastise the president. So to those trying to sell the same-sex marriage to Filipinos, this is going to be an uphill battle for your group.

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