Will the LP once more revive Sugbuak?

For our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky, we bring you Filipino-Americans straight from Hawaii who came to Cebu for the 21st Annual Trade Mission of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii (FCCH). With the group is Ms. Emme Tomimbang, a famous tv personality in Hawaii for over 30 years who had a one-hour Ttv special entitled “Emme’s Island Moments” similar to our tv shows on Philippine Tourism. Emme’s father came from the island of Siquijor.

Emme was introduced to me through the Internet by Dr. Erlinda Kintanar Alburo of the Cebuano Studies Center because she produced a special documentary entitled “Mabuhay with Aloha—The Hawaii Filipino Centennial 1906-2006” that gave details about the history of Filipino immigrants to Hawaii. What we discovered was, it all started here in the Visayas because of our sugar plantations. However, a little known incident that involved the massacre of 16 Visayan sacadas forced the recruitment centers to move to northern Luzon, and since then, the majority of Filipinos living in Hawaii were Ilocanos.

Watch this very interesting and historical show with Ms. Emme Tomimbang, Joanne Corpuz (her assistant) and Dr. Erlinda Alburo on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm tonight and learn how closely linked Hawaii is with the Philippine Islands.

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While the Lakas-Kampi had their “Show of Force” in Manila last week, the Liberal Party (LP) was getting busy here in Cebu, getting Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña as the Chairman of the LP Cebu City Directorate. However this was not without problems as the Mayor’s brother, former Sen. Serge Osmeña III suddenly left the LP Party in reaction to the inclusion of former Sen. Ralph Recto into the LP Senatorial slate. What was a boon to the LP with the addition of the Rectos, which has Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos, has now turned into a political squabble so early in the game.

Mayor Tom wasted no time in saying on nationwide tv: “I junked Recto in the last elections… I will junk him again.” Indeed, the junking game has begun even before the deadline of the filing of certificates of candidacies has expired. What does this mean for the LP Party? Well, they may have wrested Batangas from the Lakas-Kampi, but in the end, they do not get all their Senate slate in Cebu City. This is why the LP has to be very careful as to who they get for their political allies, as it might backfire on them.

A case in point is the Province of Cebu where the LP has already lined up its supporters most of whom are coming from old political names that recently revived the defunct Panaghiusa Party. The case for the Province of Cebu is totally different from that of Cebu City in the sense that those politicos who aligned with the LP are the very same ones who promoted to dismember the Province of Cebu into small but stupid provinces in order turn those old politicians into mini-governors of Cebu del Norte, Cebu del Sur and Occidental Cebu, because they could never win as Governor of Cebu.

From the way things are going, it leaves Gov. Gwen F. Garcia with no choice but to stay with the Lakas-Kampi because her father Rep. Pablo Garcia has already committed himself to support the Gibo-Edu Tandem. So we can expect that during the election campaign in the Province of Cebu we will be seeing Noynoy Aquino on the same entablado with the very politicos behind the highly divisive Sugbuak campaign. Right now, we haven’t heard anyone from Panaghiusa admitting that the Sugbuak was a grievous mistake, a mistake that cost them their political fortunes.

If Gov. Gwen Garcia won a decisive, albeit historical election margin in the 2004 elections, you can only blame it on the fact that the huge majority of Cebuanos (this includes Mayor Tomas Osmeña) did not want the Province of Cebu subdivided or dismembered. What is scary for us is, if and when Noynoy Aquino becomes President, the people behind him will be so powerful that they just might succeed in breaking the Province of Cebu into their own political fiefdoms. I hope this would never happen to Cebu.

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While we’re in the heat of the election campaign, we must not forget that Cebu is still in the middle of a crisis, a shortage of power. But we are elated that at least the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) is trying to find ways to reduce our power consumption. Last week, they signed a MOA for the use of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) as it would save around 20 to 25% of VECO’s energy load.

To achieve this, VECO will distribute 250,000 CFLs for Cebu consumers. A household could trade a maximum of six incandescent bulbs. If the Cebuano consumers trade their old bulbs for CFLs, it would mean a saving worth the power consumption of a big shopping mall! So let’s go for it!

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