Davide: More provinces, more dynasties

If you think that the Buak-Sugbo campaign to break Cebu Province into four separate provinces — Cebu del Norte, Cebu del Sur, Cebu Occidental and the present Cebu province — is dead in the water, think again. Congressmen belonging to the second, third and fourth district of Cebu are still working feverishly to assure their political families that come election time, they can run for elective positions even if they are now prevented by the Constitution to seek another term.

As we’ve said before, breaking Cebu into smaller provinces would make Cebu lose its prestigious numero uno position among the country’s 80 provinces. We’re number one in terms of income, number one in terms of assets and most important of all, Cebu province has no debts. Thanks mainly to the effort of former Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia.

However, since his daughter Gov. Gwendolyn took over the reins of the provincial government, she has only one main objective for her term — to do even better than her father! Frankly speaking, I don’t doubt that she’s capable of doing it, which is why the other politicos are running scared and the only way to get even is to break up the province.

Gov. Gwen Garcia also brought this issue to the League of Governors, where she got an overwhelming support from the governors all over the country. She also got the support of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) last month. Early on, Gov. Garcia realized that this issue wasn’t going to be exclusive to Cebu as there are many other selfish politicos out there on their last and final terms of office who are also thinking along the same selfish and greedy lines.

Well, last Friday night, I met a good old friend from way back our Club Filipino de Cebu golfing days, who is now the provincial governor of Southern Leyte, Gov. Rosette Yñiquez Lerias. Would you believe that she told me that she was having the same problems as Gov. Gwen Garcia and that her political opponents wanted to break up the island of Leyte into three Provinces? We all know that Southern Leyte is one of the poorest provinces in this country and there is no doubt that breaking it further into several provinces is detrimental to the people of Leyte.

Incidentally, Gov. Gwen recently got an unexpected ally in the person of Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. who expressed his opinion that splitting Cebu into numerous provinces will only promote political dynasties. How true that the more the provinces, the more the politicos! Yes, Chief Justice Davide just added another reason why we should all be against this move. Indeed, the creation of more provinces will only serve the selfish ambitions of last- term politicians, as there is no basic good that will come out of this. I say we should put a stop to this before it tears this nation apart!

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As President Arroyo had said last week that her government is doing all it can to curb corruption, we asked Malacañang to clean up the sordid mess at the Bureau of Customs in Cebu. A couple of days later, we got the surprise of our life when Cebu Customs Collector Billy Bibit was removed from his post. Nope, we’re not saying that the articles we wrote about Mr. Bibit were the reason why Malacañang kicked him out. We just had good timing. Indeed, too many incidents have been happening at the Bureau of Customs, it has become the favorite subject of coffee house habitués.

A big issue we wrote about was the luxury vehicle, a BMW 645 Ci, which was seen sporting a number 8 plate number. Upon our sleuthing, we learned that only two such cars came in via the BMW dealership. It was quite disturbing that a Congressman would smuggle this car to the port of Cebu. So we wrote Billy Bibit asking information about this vehicle but he kept mum on the request. I reckon that if the car was hot, Mr. Bibit would keep the Code of Omerta, and until today, he has been silent on this. I just hope that his successor, Lourdes Mangaoang, Cebu’s first woman Customs Collector who formally took over her post at the Bureau of Customs last Thursday would fare better than Bibit… in the corruption front.

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Here’s an e-mail I got in response to our article last week on making future EDSA uprisings as unconstitutional or illegal. This letter is quite self-explanatory, so I don’t need to add comments to something I already concur.

"Bobit… I’ve been reading disturbing news articles about bishops and priests inciting people to revolt against the Philippine government. I would like to remind these people who want change, not just priests and bishops but also military officials and politicians: THE ARROYO ADMINISTRATION IS TEMPORARY! There is a way of changing the government without violence or revolutions. It’s called the ELECTION! You people live in the Philippines, not Iraq! You don’t overthrow the government, you vote them out!

The People Power Revolution against Marcos was justified because of gross corruption. He held on to power unlawfully and took away our basic constitutional rights and there was no other way to get rid of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if these movements are initiated by people who can’t get elected themselves. If these people succeed in getting rid of the administration, who then will be president, Susan Roces?

For sure it would not be the person who would have been the people’s choice, but the one who started this madness in the first place. If you have something to say against the administration then get your voices be heard in a lawful way. We have courts of law, newspaper editorials, etc. Priest, bishops, etc. should not use their positions to start these movements unless they’re representing the church’s position and for sure they’re not. Separation of church and state - does this sound familiar? And I doubt the people participating in these movements even voted in the elections themselves.

Again, we already have a President, but it’s a temporary position! In a few years, we can get a replacement and when we do, make sure he or she is the best one you can find because we’ll have him or her for a few years again. So next time, vote and do it wisely. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

Delio V. Serrano"

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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 8:00 p.m.