What do we do if there's a failure of elections?

Are we seeing a doomsday scenario that a failure of elections might result in a vacuum in the leadership and result in either Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) declaring Martial Law or worse, a possible coup to grab power? I certainly hope that this won’t happen. But that this scenario has been publicized at this time tells me that something fishy is being cooked by spurious groups that hope to cash in on the chaos that could ensue if something disrupts the automated counting done by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

But now that this cat is out of the bag, may I suggest that our Cebuano leadership from both the government and private sector should also prepare various scenarios on how we should respond to this kind of problem. For instance, if a military coup grabs power in Malacañang and declares a new government, what should we in Cebu do? Kowtow to a new but illegal government or should we do something else? At this point, what Cebu needs is a think-thank group that has the credibility to advise our people on what steps we should take so we could make decisions for the future of Cebu if a political disaster of this magnitude should hit our country or what’s left of it!

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Last Tuesday evening, we attended the formal launching of the new logo of Aboitiz Power (AP) at the Casino Español. We already printed the speech of AP Pres. and CEO Erramon Aboitiz. Allow me to print instead excerpts from the speech of Gov. Gwen F. Garcia on what she said about Aboitiz Power.

“Cebu is no stranger to Aboitiz Power, its brand of service and its legendary almost obsessive dedication to continuous improvement and excellence. At a time when Cebu needed a reliable power distribution system to fuel its phenomenal growth, Aboitiz Power revolutionized it, making a model of efficiency in the entire country. At this critical point in Cebu’s power needs, Aboitiz Power and partners have taken on the challenge of providing a baseload capacity here in Cebu, signaling our common commitment to be energy-sufficient in the years ahead. It comes at no better and more opportune time in our history—the longest period of continuous economic growth for Cebu.”

Gov. Garcia added, “The times call for competent, respected and reliable companies who will invest in new solutions to the new and more complex challenges that face us, Better Solutions as Aboitiz Power calls it. But what signals more than anything else is Aboitiz Power’s intention to be here for the long haul is its heavy investment in clean, renewable energy, with its acquisition of the Tiwi and Makban Geothermal plants and the Ambuklao and Binga Hydro plants. It speaks to us not only of Aboitiz Power’s commitment to invest in the technology of the future, but more importantly, the primacy of it responsibility to make that future sustainable, better for us and the generations that will come after us.”

No doubt where Aboitiz Power is headed brings hope that there is a Cebuano based company that does its business with a sense of responsibility for our environment. Anything they do for Cebu will definitely be good for us Cebuanos and for the future of our children.

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I saw the premier show of National Geographic entitled “Asia’s Titanic” which was the tragic sinking of Sulpicio Lines M/V Doña Paz, a sea disaster that happened 22 years ago. It collided with the tanker M/T Vector which resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 passengers and earned the title as the Worst Peace-time Maritime Disaster.

It’s bad enough that this National Geographic special presentation featured that tragic disaster which is embarrassing for the Philippines; towards the end of the show, the sinking of the M/V Doña Marilyn was also featured. Call it luck that there was no mention of the M/V Princess of the Stars; perhaps that documentary was already in its finishing stages.

What that documentary teaches us is something that we already know, that we do not learn our lessons in history, which has resulted in many maritime disasters. If National Geographic included the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars, it just makes me wonder what the commentator would say about us Filipinos as a people.

That the Philippine government did not do anything against the shipping company after the sinking of the M/V Doña Paz and Doña Marilyn speaks volumes about our government’s bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption. Mind you, this is not happening only in the shipping industry, but also in Land Transportation as well. Another example is the recent bus accident in Lucena City that killed nine passengers. So when will those accidents stop?

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