Letter to the Editor - Cardinal Vidal and Sugbuak

The strong resistance of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to Sugbuak (TF August 23) is a very welcome breath of fresh air, not just for its actual direct stand against the splitting of the provincial territory and government, but also, in inference, against any future ill-conceived move to split the Cebu Diocese as well.

When Cebu City was severed politically from the province decades ago, the effect was hardly perceptible, only felt probably by the provincial officials, as they were made only too aware of the sudden big drop in the province's income and consequently, on their ability to deliver the requisite (and "promised") services to the people.

Interestingly in hindsight, the psyche of the Cebuanos has not been traumatized, not in the least bit, by the experience, and no clichéd "closure" was ever suggested. Perhaps because the geography remained much the same.

From the province, one could still go freely to-and in, by, through, and whatever-Cebu City, and vice versa (in the literary ways of our jeepneys), without ever feeling he was stepping on alien soil. City folks and province folks have not felt any less Cebuano at all, and the split is just in one's political mind.

That, is State affairs.

Now, even predating by several years this agitation about Sugbuak, Catholics have been hearing talks about the Diocese (or Archdiocese) of Cebu being split into a North, Central and South Cebu, too. Like what Cardinal Vidal feels with our civilian government, Catholics had begun feeling they too were not being consulted by their church government. And like the cardinal's distress about hearings being done only in Manila, Cebu Catholics, too, believed hearings, if any, about the future of the diocese were being done perhaps only in Rome.

The good cardinal's stand and much-awaited pastoral letter against any Sugbuak should lay both worries to rest.
Peary Y. Aleonar Jr.
0791 F. Ramos Ext
Capitol Site, Cebu City