Party unity is the strength of BO-PK!

For our special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you the finalists for the 4th Triennial Awardees of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) so you can hear from their own mouths on what they have been doing for their respective communities, which made them the finalists for this very prestigious event. 

The finalists for Exemplary Individual, Dr. Chelsa R. Cacaldo Rural Health Physician Province of Negros Oriental; Dr. Ray Catague, Provincial Health Officer III Integrated Provincial Health Office-Cotabato; Ms. Wilhelmina Gonzales, President of the Negros Economic Development Foundation, Inc. (NEDF); Mr. Glicerio Lucrecia of Zamboanga del Sur and Dr. Gerardo Maxino and Physics Educator for change.

The Outstanding Institution Finalists are, Mr. Achilles Bayano of the San Francisco Assoc. for Differently-abled Persons Multi-Purpose Coop in Agusan del Sur; Mrs. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (Vis-Min); Mr. Crisanto Amper, of FREELAVA Cebu City; Mr. Leonardo Moneva of the Mag-uugmad Foundation, Inc. Cebu City and Mr. Mario Victor Baang of the SOS Children’s Village (SOS-DV).

Last Friday evening, RAFI bestowed upon Dr. Chelsa Cadaldo as the Don Ramon Aboitiz Exemplary Individual Awardee, while the Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VFFI) was awarded the Don Eduardo Aboitiz Outstanding Institution and Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda its President and Executive Director took the award for her foundation.

 Watch this very interesting show of people who light a candle rather than curse the darkness on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00PM tonight.

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The Saturday headline of a local daily about the 40 barangay captains who came up with a manifesto rejecting Acting Mayor Michael Rama was something I sort of predicted. A few months ago, when Mayor Tomas Osmeña declared that his Mayoralty candidate was going to be Vice-Mayor Mike Rama, I told Mike that there would be people within the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) who would try to drive a wedge because they want to support their own candidates.

The reason is, 2010 elections is a Presidential elections therefore, Presidential candidates would need a complete local government slate. Cebu City would have at least three groups running against each other. I don’t know what would be the reaction of Mayor Osmeña; we’ll have to ask him when he gets home supposedly today.

So many criticisms have been hurled against Mike Rama, but I don’t want to add fuel to the fire that would break up BO-PK. I met Mike Rama Saturday morning and I asked him on one accusation that he was wishy-washy and did not make a stand on certain issues. Mikes’ reply was, “I’m only Acting Mayor and therefore, this is not yet my term. I cannot make final decisions based only on my own because Mayor Tom may not like it and when he comes back, he might undo it.” Perhaps the problem is the lack of understanding of what the Acting Mayor’s real role is.

The premature move of the barangay captains could threaten the unity of the BO-PK and unity is what gives the BO-PK strength for this coming Presidential elections. They must rethink this position, unless Mayor Tom says otherwise.

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I call it a Divine Coincidence that while RAFI was recognizing our unsung heroes in the Visayas and Mindanao through the Triennial Awards, Forbes Magazine came up with a story recognizing four Filipinos amongst the 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in the Asia Pacific Region. They are Mr. Manuel V. Pangilinan of First Pacific and PLDT/ Smart, Mr. Alfonso Yuchengo Sr., chairman of the Yuchengco Group, Mr. Henry Sy of Shoemart chain of Super Malls and Mr. Jon Ramon Aboitiz chairman of the Aboitiz Holding Company.

Forbes Magazine recognized these four Filipinos for their CSR work and for Jon Aboitiz, it was a recognition of RAFI and the Aboitiz Foundation (AF). That four Filipinos were recognized by Forbes Magazine sends ripples of hope throughout the country that there is hope through the private sector that do not only profit from their respective business, but plows back a huge amount of money (even in these financially difficult times) for their CSR programs designed to help alleviate poverty in this country.