Too many reckless drivers in Cebu

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky” we introduce to you our newly-appointed Cebu Provincial Police Office director, Police Colonel Roderick Mariano. While he is new to the job, I talked to him about the need to cover the towns of northern and southern Cebu. I call him lucky in the sense that Cebu Province is now back in the hands of Governor Gwen F. Garcia who in her earlier life as governor declared the province of Cebu insurgency-free!

So his challenge now is how to keep his men in shape, knowing that Cebu no longer has an insurgency problem. Of course there is always the fight to stop the growth of drugs into Cebu. So watch this on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

* * *

Nine were killed and 16 others injured after their open type dump truck figured in an accident in Boljoon. It was truly disturbing to note that most of the victims were barely teenagers. Now, what was the cause of the crash? One can say that that the dump truck looked new but was made by Foton in China. It is truly sad to note that so many of our youth already passed to eternal life at a very young age. I noticed there were so many bad accidents last week. Even in Mango Avenue a jeepney was nearly totaled when it was struck by a Toyota Fortuner. Perhaps it is time to re-examine why we have reckless drivers in Cebu? What about that Ceres Bus that fell into a ditch in Oslob?

* * *

Last July 17th, I got a call from Tony Rizarri, my best friend in Houston, Texas, that our classmate, Prof. Manuel “Ling-Ling” Soriaga, suddenly died. Prof. Soriaga is no longer in Houston but in Pasadena, California, working at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Caltech, apparently came up with an epilogue for Soriaga and allow me to reprint what they wrote about our classmate in USC-BHS Class ‘66.

“Manuel ‘Manny’ Soriaga, a research professor of applied physics and materials science, died on July 17, 2019. He was 69. As a principal investigator in Caltech's Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), Soriaga studied electrochemical reactions that make artificial photosynthesis possible. His research focused in particular on the discovery and development of the catalysts required to perform those reactions.

Soriaga's interest in chemistry was rooted in his childhood; his father was a professor of chemistry at the University of San Carlos in the Philippines, where Soriaga later pursued his undergraduate studies. He graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1970. He then attended the University of Hawaii and earned his PhD in chemistry in 1978.

“After completing his graduate studies, he held positions at the University of Hawaii; UC Santa Barbara, where he was an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund research fellow; and Texas A&M University.

“In 2012, Soriaga joined Caltech as a visiting associate. He became a research professor in 2016. Soriaga was prolific in his research, authoring over 200 papers and five books, according to a 2012 profile of him that appeared in Philippine Science Letters, a journal that highlights research conducted by Filipino scientists. ‘Manny’s accomplishments as a surface scientist were peerless and of the highest quality, and he made essential and indispensable contributions to JCAP’s mission,’ says Harry Atwater, director of JCAP and Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science. ‘All who knew him well will also remember with fondness the warmth and humor that he brought to his work and life’.

“Guruswami (Ravi) Ravichandran, Caltech's John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, called Soriaga a distinguished scientist who made leading contributions to fuel cells, batteries, and hydrogen storage. ‘Since joining JCAP, he played a critical role in examining the structure, composition, and reactivity of known catalysts guiding the synthesis of better catalysts for water-splitting reactions and CO2 reduction,’ Ravichandran says. Soriaga is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Binamira Soriaga; his son, Joseph; and his daughters, Angela, and Christine.