Finally, the Asean Summit begins this week!

Finally, the postponed 12th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit reels off this week with the foreign ministers meeting today, but the main ASEAN event, the leaders’ meeting will still be held on Jan. 11 to 14. To the local folk, the most awaited decision that affects many Cebuanos was the decision by Malacañang declaring Jan. 12 to 15 as a holiday. That means we will have a four-day long weekend ahead of us. ASEAN Summit organizers expect that the locals would take a vacation away from the hustle and bustle of the traffic in many of the major roads leading to the venues of the ASEAN Summit.

The only problem there is that, this is the week prior to the Sinulog fiesta, which has been dubbed as the country’s biggest tourism drawer for both foreign and domestic tourists. With Metro Cebu spruced up for the ASEAN Summit, we can also expect a record crowd to come for the Sinulog for both the procession of Señor Sto. Niño on Saturday and the Sinulog Grand Parade on Sunday, which is the fiesta of Cebu.

If there’s anything going for Cebu, it is that right after our noisy and loud celebration of the coming New Year and the Three Kings, we start our Sinug or offering to the Holy Child Jesus or Señor Sto. Niño de Cebu. This is the Cebuano way of testifying to what our Lord Jesus Christ preached when he said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added unto you." Indeed, before anything important happens, we first offer the year to the Lord and with our faith, we know for sure that he would bless us abundantly! If Cebu has been so blessed… this is one good reason.

During a luncheon meeting with The Freeman Chairman Sir Dodong Gullas, he reminded all of us that first and foremost, the Sinulog festivities are religious, albeit a very Catholic celebration. After many decades of celebrating the Sinulog, too often, our young folk tend to forget what it is all about and it’s not just all merrymaking.

A case in point is what our Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia did in the past two years during the Sinulog. As Cebu’s first lady governor, she donned a Maria Clara type of clothes and danced through the streets of Cebu holding the Infant Jesus in her hands as if she were one of the thousands of dancers on the street. Doing the Sinulog dance from morning till afternoon along the parade route is no joke even for a strong man.

I asked Gov. Gwen why she took it upon herself to do this when she could have opted to stay in the comfort of the grandstand. Her reply was…"This was my halad (offering) to the Lord." Dancing for the Lord is an acceptable way of offering oneself. I once did this 30 years ago on Bantayan Island when my wife’s grandparents, Jesus and Filomena Cabatingan Sr., asked me to carry my first-born, Frances Angelique Avila (she’s now a doctor married to Atty. Jennoh Tequillo), along the procession route during the Holy Week as a way of thanking the Lord for giving me a daughter. I obediently did what they had asked me to do.

I also interviewed Valentino Sandiego of the famous Sandiego Dance Troupe, the dance company that is synonymous to Sinulog, as they have won so many awards during the Sinulog since the beginning of the festival. Val told me that three days before the Sinulog Festival in 2002, a fire broke out in his residence where his dance studio was located and the blaze burned everything they had, including the costumes for the Sinulog. That was more than enough reason for the Sandiego Dance Troupe not to participate in that year’s festivities.

But the very determined Val Sandiego took the fire that gutted his place as God’s way of humbling him and so he asked his dancers to dress in white T-shirts and they danced along the parade route to a loudest applause we’ve ever witnessed given to any dance contingent. Val told me that God always sees our soul and not the clothes we wear. Thus the lack of costumes did not prevent them from their annual halad dance offering to Señor Sto. Niño that year when their studio burned to the ground. Today, Val’s studio is a modern concrete building and the Lord has blessed him so much. He swore to me, "I will dance to Sto. Niño during the Sinulog until my last breath!"

This year, Cebu hosts the nation’s biggest international event with the ASEAN Summit and this is followed immediately by the Sinulog. A month ago, Christmas carolers would have greeted the ASEAN delegates, but since this event was postponed, the delegates would now be welcomed by the Sinulog dancers performing to the Sinulog beat… Pit Senyor!

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Mandaue City plays the major host for the ASEAN Summit because the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) is located there. But right now it is in the midst of a major quarrel between a big business conglomerate and Mayor Teddy Ouano on the issue of the city’s trying to get back a one-hectare property that was supposed to be used for a children’s playground.

This property was leased supposedly for 20 years to motorcycle magnate Atty. Norberto Quisumbing Jr. (NQJR) of Norkis Trading who wanted to "give back" to the people of Mandaue for the success of his motorcycle business by putting up a children’s playground on a property leased by the City of Mandaue for a measly P1,000 per annum. But as the years wore on, there was no children’s playground that Norkis Trading put up. Worse of all, they put up a display center for their used vehicles. This is a total departure from the agreement that Norkis had signed with the City of Mandaue.

For many years, this property was never an issue simply because NQJR was considered a friend or even a political patron of the powers-that-be running Mandaue City. But when his grandson Luigi entered politics, things started to sour between the Quisumbings and the Ouanos. Suddenly, the old nearly forgotten leased property took center stage and soon, Mayor Ouano decided that it was time to take it back, as he wanted to use it to build the Mandaue City College.

But the very proud Norberto Quisumbing Jr. would not return the property without a fight. The case is now in Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 56 of Mandaue City. Lawyers can always find minute glitches in any contract no matter how great it is… but the spirit of that agreement is the one we should look into — that the children of Mandaue City were shortchanged in this deal. Therefore, this deal was not beneficial to the City of Mandaue and its people. It is as simple as that!

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For e-mail 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, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.