Cebu names a street after Edgar Cokaliong

Last Sunday afternoon, I attended the Cebu Historical and Cultural Affairs Commission (CHAC) event naming the third street at the North Reclamation Area as Edgar Cokaliong Street. During the ceremonies when Chester Cokaliong spoke for his family, he thanked Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella for sponsoring this bill ten years ago when he was still a councilor. He also thanked CHAC chairman, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, for making his promise to his mother, Georgina, possible.

Chester talked about his father who apparently died at a young age of 55. It was then that Chester’s voice cracked with emotion. It was the first time he spoke about his father in public. Of course, anyone who spoke good words about his father would certainly end up emotional. It was one public event that many Cebu City councilors attended. So you’ll know where, Edgar Cokaliong Street is located it is right across the Galleria Mall. It is indeed a great honor to Edgar Cokaliong!

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Last Sunday evening we spent hours watching the international media interview passengers on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which travelled to Hong Kong where an 80-year-old man disembarked and later showed signs he had novel coronavirus. It was then that Hong Kong authorities informed the cruise ship, which passed Taipei a day before ending its trip in Yokohama, Japan.

I’m writing this piece because my family and I had a Mediterranean cruise on the Royal Princess two years ago. Then last May we took another cruise on the Serenade of the Seas by Royal Caribbean. The reason why we take cruises is simply that a ship visits many cities like five or six cities and you don’t need to have a visa. But above all, when you enter your room, you unpack your bags only once and when the voyage is over, that’s the time you pack your bags and leave them outside your door as the ship’s crew will bring them down to the and later you will see your bags in the terminal already ready for you to bring them either to the airport or the hotel if your trip is not yet done.

In the case of the Diamond Princess, it already arrived in its homeport, Yokohama, as it was the end of their voyage. But the next morning as passengers were prepared to leave the ship, Japanese health authorities announced that there were 20 passengers confirmed with the novel coronavirus. They were removed from the ship by the Japanese Coast guard and placed in hospitals in Tokyo.

Japanese Health authorities ordered all passengers to stay in their rooms and they all entered their rooms and checked each passenger. With this problem presented to Princess Cruises, we learned from passengers acting as bloggers that food was given to all the passengers inside their rooms. There are 3,700 passengers on board and 530 crew, many of which are Filipinos. It was also revealed that one Filipino crew member was infected by the novel coronavirus.

Most of the passengers feel that from travelling in a luxury liner, they now say that it is like a prison ship because they are quarantined for 14 days. Of course, if your room is like what we got for our cruise, we were in the inner cabins, which had no windows, except for a television. But if you got yourself an expensive suite room, then you are in the midst of luxury with a balcony and you can enjoy the view. But still you’re under lockdown. However, most of the rooms do not even have a window or balcony and it indeed feels like a prison.

To ease the problems of these passengers, they are given free Wi-Fi (you had to pay for that, but not in this emergency situation), free telephone calls, additional channels on your TV, and, yes, most of the senior passengers on board were given their prescription medicines for free. This means that Princess Cruises really find ways to help their passengers on this 14-day lockdown.

Right now, the Diamond Princess has 11 days to go. However, what is disastrous is that from the original 20 passengers infected with the virus, 64 passenger were now found to have the virus. Now the big question many passengers want to know is what happens after 14 days of quarantine and yet they find another passenger with the virus?