Today is the last column for the month of December and for 2018. Though it’s a Monday, therefore I should print what we are showing for our TV talkshow Straight from the Sky supposedly for Monday, I decided that our New Year’s presentation, which is about the new Terminal 2 of GMR-Megawide with CEO Andrew Harrison, will have to be shown tomorrow Tuesday January 1 at the start of 2019. So let me write about the important events that happened in the year 2018.
I was in Manila in January 2018 when the Metro Gaisano department store in the Ayala Center Cebu burned for nearly two days. When Mayor Tomas Osmeña got home from his trip to the US, he ordered that no more buildings in Cebu City will be constructed more than five stories high. This was an offshoot of the reality that our fire department does not have equipment that can tackle tall buildings. But in truth, this was a problem that has plagued the fire department since we constructed the Cebu Plaza Hotel, now the Marco Polo Plaza.
In the end, Mayor Osmeña doomed all construction projects of condominiums that reached more than 10 stories high, including the Kawit development of Gokongwei. But by August 2018 Mayor Osmeña signed an P18-billion deal with Gokongwei for a resort and casino project in what used to be Kawit Island in the South Road Properties, which should be a bitter lesson for Osmeña not to block condominium projects taller than five stories when you have a deal with another company having tall buildings in Cebu City.
In February, President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte came to Cebu City to grace the official launching of the Malasakit Program in the Visayas at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center. I first got hold of the Malasakit Program when I interviewed on my TV talkshow Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino during the first show of 2018.
This program stems from a directive from no less than President Duterte to help the poorest of the poor in a one-stop shop area that will be identified in partner hospitals or agencies like PhilHealth, PCSO, DSWD, DOH, or Pagcor. I call this program one of the most successful programs for 2018.
2018 got me into realizing that despite the full support of the Cebuano people for Duterte, we have yet to get our infrastructure development going. Remember despite the Cebuano’s votes that got then President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino elected as president and with the support of Mayor Osmeña’s political party the BOPK for then DILG Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas, Cebu got virtually no new infrastructure projects except the destruction of well-paved roads so they can construct new ones. This was the reality in Cebu during the six-year term of Aquino!
But then we all know what happened inside the Comelec, I mean why would a non-performing governor, Hilario Davide III, win the elections when he had nothing to show in the last three years? Is this why he insisted on constructing a 20-story building beside the Capitol for P1.4 billion that he would loan from the bank? Makes you wonder why Mayor Osmeña didn’t block it when he knows too well that Escario St. has traffic problems? Thankfully that project has been put on hold.
2018 also revealed the corruption of Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista who was having marriage problems with his wife, Patricia. Now it can be told that he had 34 bank accounts in the Luzon Development Bank as revealed by his wife. So where is Bautista now? Gone and no one seems to be looking for him to account for the corruption he committed! Let see if come May 2019 the Comelec will once more use Smartmatic.
December was the greatest month for 2018 as on December 11 the Balangiga bells were finally returned to the Philippines and to the church in Balangiga, Samar after a 117-year absence. Then a week later on December 17 our Catriona Gray won the Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok, Thailand, the fourth Filipina to win this prestigious title after Ms. Gloria Diaz in 1969, Ms. Margie Moran in 1973, and Ms. Pia Wurtzbach in 2015. So 2018 was indeed a great year for us!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com