We remember the 9/11 terror attack in New York

Tomorrow is a red-letter day for the Kaiser Health Group as it formally opens its 3rd medical center (the first one was years ago at the Mactan Export Processing Zone) and the next one was opened only this year at the SM Seaside at the South Road Properties. Today Kaiser Health Group opens at the SM City, thus giving Cebuanos medical benefits in shopping malls within Cebu City, making it convenient for workers not just to come for their usual medical check up, but allows them to be at the shopping malls at the same time. Kudos to Kaiser Medical Health Group for making it convenient for mall goers in Cebu City.

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While technically the 2019 election season has not yet officially opened, however, last Sunday afternoon in Cebu City the major political groups the first led by incumbent Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his ruling party the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK), held a mass at 4 p.m. in front of the Cebu City Hall which apparently turned out to be a political rally.

What I did not know was that at the same time there was a pro-Duterte rally organized by the Barug-PDP Laban Cebu City Chapter held at the Plaza Independencia that they called a pro-Duterte concert. They are the opposition group against the BO-PK. Looking at the photographs that the two groups posted in their respective Facebook pages, it looks like there was a huge turnout in the Barug-PDP Laban rally.

If you count the number of those that attended each rally, and if the local elections were held today, it seems that the opposition to the incumbent BO-PK has a huge advantage. But then elections are still a few months next year. However, the opposition Barug-PDP Laban group has increased to a huge number since former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced that he would no longer seek the office of the mayor and opt to run as vice mayoral candidate of incumbent vice mayor Edgardo Labella. This decision by Rama has strengthened their group in their fight against Mayor Osmeña.

One of the major problems plaguing Cebu City these days is the bad traffic especially those going to the southern part of Cebu City. While traffic has turned from bad to worse, it would seem that the administration of Mayor Tomas Osmeña has not done much to solve the traffic problem. This is why these days Mayor Osmeña is at odds with Land Transportation Office (LTO) Regional Director-7 Vic Caindec.

Mayor Osmeña is also at odds with Cebu City Police Director Royina Garma and Regional Police Director-7 Debold Sinas whom he declared as “The enemy of the people.” Just a couple of weeks ago, no less than Pres. Rodrigo Duterte chastised Mayor Osmeña, warning him that he might campaign against him in the coming mid-term elections. For the record, Pres. Duterte, being a Cebuano, is extremely popular in Cebu and his promise to campaign against Mayor Osmeña should be a serious matter for the Cebu City mayor.

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Today is Sept. 11th or as we’ve been calling it 9/11 when 17-years ago a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks using airliners by the Islamic terrorist group dubbed Al-Qaeda struck the world famous Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in downtown New York City killing 2,996 people and injuring some 6,000 others in what was dubbed as an attack similar to the attack by the Japanese Imperial Forces in Pearl Harbor. This attack caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.

Four passenger airliners operated by United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines flight no. 11 that departed from airports in the Northeastern part of the United States were hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists (most of them Egyptians) and crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. Another Airliner American Airlines Flight no. 77 was crashed into the Pentagon Building, while a fourth Airliner American Airlines Flight no. 93 was headed for Washington D.C. but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers thwarted the hijackers.

9/11 is the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers[4] in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed. As people say, we never forget these world famous incidents in our lives. Indeed, I was having our corporate worship at the Redemptorist Church with the Bukas Loob sa Diyos (BLD) when this terror attack happened. It was a Tuesday 17 years ago and it’s also a Tuesday now.

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