Due to the lack of Wi-Fi availability, we had to do our columns while the internet was still around. With things now back to normal, we can write about Sinulog 2020. Perhaps the most important thing that happened during the Sinulog festivities was the arrival, although two-hours late, of Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte. The result of his late arrival meant that the Sinulog Festival ended at 10:30 p.m., which makes it the longest Sinulog Festival that I can remember.
More important was the speech that Pres. Duterte gave us, which was not a long speech, but a very important one for Cebu, especially when the president said, “Cebu is an old city, you can’t expand anymore because of narrow roads and problem of easement. Wala pay gobyerno naa nay Cebu. If Cebu starts with a train transport, go on and build roadway in the skies and I will help you to source out funds for that infra project.”
There’s no doubt that the president realized that the biggest problem that Cebu was facing was bad traffic, which he believes can be solved with a train system. No, I didn’t hear the president chastise the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), but clearly its problem lies upon the fact that roads need to be widened in order to implement that project. This also gives you an idea that the president does not only want to solve the traffic problems hounding Metro Manila, but also here in Cebu. He mentioned that he has only two years left in his administration and he intends to leave the presidency with infrastructure problems already solved.
While he is referring to our infrastructure problems, he didn’t mention that he must also solve our political infrastructure problems. Yes, for as long as we do not change our current political system, we would always have problems with our politicians. The 1987 Constitution created a political monster in the sense that that we have parliamentary-style political parties, but still retain our presidential system. At this point, we must follow the example of the American Constitution where the president and vice president belong to the same party. This is one change that we hope that Pres. Duterte can make while he is still in power. The Philippine nation would certainly thank him for it.
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Last Sunday we watched Governor Gwen Garcia dance with the Alcoy “Siloy” Festival performers who won the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo. This was six years after she last danced in the Sinulog Festival, and she is still as graceful as ever. More importantly, she was requested to dance again when Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte arrived and she did so with such grace and I’m sure that the president was impressed.
The performance of the governor started off with an act showing massive degradation of forests. Dancers portrayed illegal logging resulting in the damage of the rainforest that served as the performance’s backdrop.
Garcia emerged as the festival queen, miniature tree in hand, as a symbolism of Mother Nature and her preservation. In the present stage of gold and black, Garcia contrasted her background with her blue Philip Tampus overcoat. She eventually receded back to change into another Tampus creation, this time incorporating floral embroidery with black feathers as homage to the distinct features of the Siloy bird. Great show, governor!
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Call us blessed that the weather last Sunday was perfect and not even our usual hot Sunday. But suddenly it rained hard yesterday, which would have stopped revelers from joining the Sinulog. But in the aftermath of the Sinulog, I saw the photos from The FREEMAN of huge piles of garbage, especially along Colon Street. Many netizens also put on their Facebook page photos of garbage almost everywhere along the parade route.
This gives us an idea that we Cebuanos still have to learn from nations like the Netherlands where the people do not create garbage for the sake of creating it. During their hosting in MyTV, Nimrod Quiñones kept on repeating and imploring the public to throw their trash in the bins. Unfortunately, with some two million people in attendance, it was just impossible to control the habit of the people throwing away their garbage anywhere they like. At this point, I would like to believe that the academe should come up with the proper solutions to this particular problem; that we Filipinos are a dirty bunch of people.