Sugbuak proponents: Traitors to Cebu!

Who would ever believe that Topical Storm "Milenyo" (Internationally called Xangsane) would suddenly drop in at the heart of Metro Manila yesterday noon and cause so much havoc? I was flying back to Cebu last Tuesday and strong rains greeted us as we landed in Mactan. I left Manila in perfect weather and no one expected Metro Manila to be hit by this slow-moving typhoon, which somehow gained strength as it left the Visayas. By today, its effects would still be felt in most of Luzon.

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After months of speculation, the most feared news has come out from no less than Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) ordering the retake of the Nursing Examinations in order to redeem the tattered image of the Filipino nurses here and abroad. I consider the batch of my daughter Katrina Charmaine to be lucky in the sense that they belong to the second batch from Cebu Doctor's University (CDU) who took the Nursing exams.

Of course, we commiserate with frustrated parents, whose kids have to do a retake even if many of them already took their oaths with the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC). Their fears are naturally understandable. I'm sure that their children studied hard to pass that exam and if they do a retake and fail, it would be disastrous for their families.

Just the other day, I got to talk to my good friend, Dr. Ruperto Mayuga, a Fellow at Chicago's Northwestern University. Filipino doctors heard about the unfortunate cheating incident and it has tainted nurses who are looking for jobs especially in the US. Rightly or wrongly, we support the President's decision for a retake; after all, it is in the best interest of Filipino nurses whose reputations would suffer if no corrective measures were done with the cheating incident.

But now that the good nurses get "punished" together with the bad ones or those who cheated (to those who cheated, may your consciences bother you for the rest of your life!) what we would like to see the President do is to take decisive action on those people behind the leakage, especially those review centers who were in the center of this controversy. The reputation of Filipino nurses were tarnished by that leakage to the point that all who took the exams were made to do a retake yet those who cheated will go unpunished? Fair is fair. Even those who didn't cheat will do a retake, but it would be comforting to them if the guilty were punished!

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I read Cristina C. Birondo's very comprehensive report for The FREEMAN about the Sugbuak issue being deliberated in Congress by the House Committee on Local Government chaired by the Rep. Emilio Macias who is obviously siding with the members of the House of Representatives who are proposing the division and the ultimate destruction of Cebu who as we all know are last termers. I'm really glad that this problem almost ended up with a near brawl by Cebu South District Rep. Tony Cuenco and Rep. Macias, which gives you an idea of how many Congressmen are ill-bred!

Funny for Rep. Macias to claim that he is a Cebuano, yet he does the most "un-Cebuano" act by not allowing a proper debate on this issue right here in Cebu. Even funnier is Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez for questioning Rep. Tony Cuenco and Rep. Raul del Mar efforts in blocking her Sugbuak bill, saying that they are not voters of the Province of Cebu! Yet she is so happy with the support of Rep. Macias who is not only a non-voter in Cebu Province, but belongs to Negros Oriental. Though he claims to be a Cebuano, he really hates Cebu with a passion!

If you ask me, those proponents of breaking up Cebu Province are traitors to Cebu! Never in the history of Cebu has the Province gained so much attention with the other Provinces as we are the "numero uno" Province in the list of 79 Provinces in this country! Worse of all, those last termers are only exposing their true selves, that they want to keep political power in their respective Districts forever even if we have to break up the Province of Cebu. I cannot find a more selfish reason why we should allow this to happen to our beloved Cebu. This is the height of political arrogance!

Again let me reiterate why I want this constitution changed. One of the reasons is that the creation of Provinces is not being decided by the people living in the provinces as it allows Congressmen like Rep. Macias who has nothing to do with us to break us apart! If you ask me, this is not true representation by the Cebuano people. Mr. Macias should think twice. Someday, he would feel the ire of the silent Cebuano majority who are not happy with his interference in purely Cebuano affairs!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit's columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com