Today is the 12th anniversary of the 888 News Forum as originally conceptualized by Bobby Joseph as Cebu’s foremost “Kapihan” for the Cebu media. It all started in 2006 when two Cebuana journalists, Eileen Mangubat, then editor of Cebu Daily News, and broadcaster Malou Guazon Apalisok sat down with Jenny Franco who was then president of the National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (NAITAS) and thought of having the Cebu media come up with articles that would give emphasis to Cebu’s tourism industry.
Jenny Franco then called upon Consul Robert “Bobby” Joseph who was the chairman emeritus of NAITAS to ask for his support. Little did Jenny Franco know that Bobby already created the 777 News Forum in Metro Manila. It was then that then Department of Tourism (DOT) Regional Director Patricia Dawnee Roa was enlisted to support this move, and the Year 2006 saw the 888 News Forum open in Parklane Hotel. The following year it moved to the Waterfront Hotel. But in 2007 then Marco Polo Hotel general manager Hans Hauri offered the facilities of Marco Polo Hotel and the 888 News Forum has remained in Marco Polo since 2007.
In October 2012 when MyTV opened its doors in Cebu, the 888 News Forum became part of MyTV’s programing, showing it every Tuesday morning and to the public at 7 p.m. It was then led by the late Prof. Ricky Poca who passed away last December. So congratulations to Sir Bobby Joseph and the 888 News Team on their 12th anniversary, which is also on its 6th year on Cebu’s top television station.
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Last Thursday, Cebu played witness to one of the worst natural disasters that we ever saw that happened in the municipality of Naga. This was a disaster that no one expected and worse, a government office like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Mines and Geoscience Bureau wrote Naga Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong as recent as Aug. 29 this year that the area they looked into was not considered critical. That was signed by Atty. Gerardo Mahusay whom I heard was moved to Manila by DENR Sec. Cimatu who immediately replaced the DENR officials.
As of press time, the casualties of the Naga landslide have now reached 46 and 59 people still considered missing. Cebuanos never expected such a disaster to happen right there in Naga. All told, Cebuano volunteers troop to the site in Sitio Sindulan in Barangay Tinaan, Naga. One close circuit video that we were able to see was taken from the Naga Prison that showed the huge magnitude of this landslide, which was estimated to at least be 80 hectares.
Last Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte was in Cebu for his seventh visit this year and to attend the Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE), a biennial clinical conference on inflammatory bowel diseases. The conference was jointly hosted by the Philippine Society of Gastroenterology (PSG), Philippine Society of Digestive Endoscopy (PSDE) and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Club of the Philippines (IBDCP) at the Shangri-La Hotel in Mactan. But the President didn’t waste his time when he was in Cebu and immediately proceeded to the evacuation center in Naga.
While I didn’t go with the Cebu media, however, almost all of them gave us a Facebook photograph of the President while he was with the landslide survivors. You could not help but notice how Pres. Duterte took and embraced a girl who lost her parents in the landslide which gives us an idea of how the disaster has touched the heart of the President. The President ordered the moral and financial support to about 400 families who are now staying at the Enan Chion Activity Center since losing their homes to this landslide. During the Presidential visit, one of the victims urged the President to order a ban on quarrying and mining in their province.
Pres. Duterte said he was saddened by the recent disaster, which followed the landslide in Itogon, Benguet where some 100 people were feared buried. “The crisis that you are now going through is not easy. It’s excruciating because many people were affected and many had died.” I have lived in Cebu all my life and I have never heard of any disaster taking place in the town of Naga.
Once, the late Max Soliven showed me an old book that showed the bigginings of the Apo Cement Company that happened at the turn of the century. It was then I realized that the Cebu cement was so good, it was used to construct the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and used to build the Boulder Dam near Las Vegas.
It was the first disaster in the town of Naga.
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