Cebuanos do love their history and culture

For tonight’s special presentation, we give you a postscript on the holding of the last May 10 elections especially that it was the first time we held elections using automated counting machines. The initial euphoria of the quick results have all but died down because even until now, we still don’t know who won the Vice-Presidential race.

Indeed, there are just too many questions that the Comelec refuses to answer. For instance, why did it take the Comelec just three days to distribute 76,000 damaged smartcards all over the country, yet three weeks after the elections, the Comelec still has to account for all of these smartcards? Mind you, we’re not even using the arguments presented by this Koala Bear whistleblower. There are just too many problems happening with the PCOS machines, we’re actually better off doing a manual count!

Tonight we are joined by Grand Alliance for Democracy (GAD) and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) former Senatorial bet Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad. Sure. You may dub him a “sore loser” but for the sake of clean, honest and credible elections, we must hear their arguments. Sen. Tatad also came up with a four-page article entitled, “A Proposal to Nullify the May 10 Elections.” It is something drastic.

But if all the dots connects on their electoral protest, that there truly was massive cheating in the last elections, please don’t tell me that we will allow those who cheated in the last elections to hold the reins of power in this country. So watch this show with Sen. Kit Tatad tonight on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm and find out what really happened in the last May 10 elections.

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Last Friday evening, I made sure that my kids would go with me to attend the Gabii sa Kabilin (Night of Heritage) Museum tour which is now on its fourth year. This time, it is joined by nine museums, notably, the Casa Gorordo Museum, the Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House, the Cathedral Museum of Cebu, the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USP) Rizal Museum, the Sacred Heart Parish, the Fort San Pedro, the Museo Sugbo (the old Provincial Jail) and the 1730 Jesuit House on Zulueta St.

I have to hand it to the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation (RAFI) for bringing all these museums together in a very unique annual event. This was the third time for me to join the Gabii sa Kabilin, but last Friday night was perhaps the most attended affair as even late in the evening, crowds of people with their families were there looking at the history of Cebu. This is something uniquely Cebu because it is not done elsewhere in the Philippines.

It was the first time I went to the Museo Sugbo. I was pleasantly surprised that this edifice that used to be a horrible Provincial Jail has now become a great museum. I was amazed to see old Teatro Oriente flyers that the Avila Family doesn’t even have. There was even an article written that Dr. Jose Rizal did come to visit Cebu on his way from Dapitan to Manila. Yes, there were lots of old newspapers, including The FREEMAN.

I was so engrossed in the Museo Sugbo, I missed the Santa Cruzan sa Parian 2010, done by Val Sandiego with the support of Joey Enario and Ms. Joy Uy of the Taytayan Group who held it at the Heritage Monument. The Sagalas were Ms. Sheila Colmenares, Christine Abalo, Monica Villarica, Bernadette Kawakami, Yulitde Amazona, Hana Momongan, Cookie Queblatin-Chan, my niece Alayne Cañizares and Congresswoman-elect Marguerite “Cutie” del Mar who admitted it was her second Santa Cruzan.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was my unexpected visit to what I would dub “The Oldest House in Cebu”. Unexpected because my son JV parked the car along Zulueta St. so when we were about to leave Parian, it was then that we noticed that the old hardware was a participant in the Gabii sa Kabilin. I grew up in Parian and I have never known or seen what I was told was the 1730 Jesuit House. This house is tucked well inside the Ho Tong Hardware warehouse. Very few Cebuanos know that this very antique residence existed at all (it was eventually bought by the Alvarez family). I met Ka Bino Guerro, another history buff and we were just amazed that a house older than the United States of America existed in Cebu City.

 The Gabii sa Kabilin will grow bigger and better, just like the Sinulog. But why do we do this? Take it from my good friend and Cebuano artist Celso Pepito who wrote in my FaceBook, “Gabii SA Kabilin is one activity that truly awakens our sense of culture and propagates the importance of art in our life. It aims to encourage the public to visit museums and understand its position as a venue for cultural understanding. It also hopes to make visitors appreciate Cebuano history and culture.”

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