Yes, scrap that accursed pork barrel!

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in coordination with the Organization of Rehabilitation Agencies (ORA) has declared July 18 to 24 as National Disability Week with the theme "Tagumpay ng May Kapansanan ng Bayan". The message of the physically challenged or Disabled Sector is simple… they don’t want your sympathy or pity… they want your understanding and a Christian respect for human beings who, like the rest of society, also have places to go. It is for this reason that

during the first term of Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Cebu City earned the reputation of being the most "disabled-friendly" city in the country, where sidewalks are inclined to make it easier for the disabled or elderly to get out of a curb or cross the street.

But for those of you who believe that disabled people are best kept out of sight or who are embarrassed by their presence… here’s my own advice to you, someday… I guarantee you that you too would join the ranks of the physically challenged, if not today, for sure tomorrow. How many of you realize that you’re just an accident away from living a life in a wheelchair? You don’t have to be old to be disabled… a heart attack is a surefire way of your joining the ranks of the disabled. So please for this week, offer our disabled some kindness for someday, your kindness to them will return to you in God’s way.

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Last week, a good friend of mine Mr. Ben Ebrada showed me a clipping of Manong Max Soliven’s July 5, 2004 column on By the Way, entitled "If Senators and Congressmen stopped giving themselves a yearly P22 billion in pork barrel, we’d be saved!" Apparently, Mr. Ebrada was so struck by the article, he was on the verge of printing a one-page ad in Cebu’s local dailies demanding that Congress should give up their pork barrels. As Manong Max aptly put it, the best service our lawmakers can do for our nation is to give up their pork!

Indeed the question of the hour is: "Why does a Senator who has no home constituency to serve need P300 million a year in pork?" So Mr. Ebrada asks, "What could possibly happen if the bleeding of the country’s finances by pork barrel continues? For sure, our government is cash-strapped and the only possibility of getting new revenues is to look for other sources like taxing text messages or increasing what we call "sin taxes". Unless sacrifices by our Senators are made, Mr. Ebrada paints a doomsday scenario where our country’s finances would collapse, forcing the government to print more money and soon… God forbid, we could be experiencing a hyperinflation!

So what’s Mr. Ebrada proposing? He is asking His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and all anti-corruption groups to conduct a signature campaign in schools, public places like markets or malls and show our Congressmen and Senators that there is a huge outcry for them to scrap the pork barrel. Frankly speaking, I told Mr. Ebrada that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Congress to give up what they fought for in the last elections.

Ever the optimist, Mr. Ebrada want to see how many are with him on this one. Well, I’m one who always believe that the pork barrel is one of the principal sources of corruption and if Congress is dead serious in fighting this cancer, then they should lead by example. At this point, I can only wish Ben Ebrada all the luck!

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Who was it who said that the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? Indeed, there’s a truism in that statement and it seems that the Cebu Hotel, Resort and Restaurant of Cebu (HRRAC) intends to enhance the potential of Cebu’s tourism industry by assuring our foreign tourists that when they visit Cebu they just won’t enjoy our great beaches or shop in our malls, but they would also get a taste of Cebu’s culinary talents which we saw last weekend during the holding of HRRAC’s "Cebu Goes Culinary and Foodex 2004" held at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino.

Yes, Cebu should not just be a foreign or domestic tourist destination, it should also be a Tourism Center as envisioned by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. More so that the headquarters of the Department of Tourism will soon be relocated to Cebu City, including the Malacañang of the South. Yes, it is time for Cebu to be the center for the hospitality industry where we can train front desk clerks, waiters or waitresses, cooks and other hotel services.

In fact, for Cebu to attain this goal, the local government must create a "Culture of Tourism" where we start them young with subjects on tourism taught in the fourth or sixth grade. We should also include training for taxi and jeepney drivers. If these professional drivers cannot meet our tourism standards, they should not be allowed to drive in Metro Cebu.

From what we saw during the Cebu Goes Culinary events, there were cooking demos, a cake dressing contest and yes, the ice sculpting contest and many more. Just looking at the participants, especially during the Awards Night, we did not see any class levels or distinction. Hotel managers, chefs, waiters or cooks mingled together with the restaurant or resort owners.

No doubt, government should give importance to activities like Foodex or Cebu Goes Culinary so we can upgrade the quality of Filipino workers who accept jobs abroad. Right now, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) are maids, drivers or mechanics. But the Pinoys with better jobs aside from those in the medical field are those working in the hospitality industry — cooks, waiters, front desk clerks, singers or band players.

What I found significant was the statement of the venerable grand dame of the Philippine Restaurant Industry, Ms. Glenda Barretto, who led the panel of judges, that Cebu has done much better than Manila with Cebu Goes Culinary. Now that is a compliment coming from an industry insider from Manila. Now if only we can have this activity done on a yearly basis.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.