P-noy wasn’t told of the Sinulog invitation

Today is the solemn procession for the Senyor Sto. Niño, where millions of Sto. Niño devotees would flock to Cebu City early for the Fluvial Parade from St. Joseph’s Church in Mandaue City back to the Basilica de Minore in downtown Cebu City. Today’s event is a purely religious affair. This is separate from the Sinulog Festival tomorrow when all the fun begins.

Last Thursday, Region 7 Police Commander Supt. Marcelo P. Garbo Jr., our Rotary guest speaker assured our fellow Rotarians that the Philippine National Police (PNP) would be fielding 1,600 policemen in 8 different sectors. This means all avenues will be covered, so where you are in the Sinulog Festival, you can be assured that the Police would be there for your protection. In all the years we’ve held the Sinulog Festival, we always had the protection of the Senyor Sto. Niño. Pit Senyor to one and all!

* * * President Aquino was in Cebu last Wednesday for the inauguration of the Austal Philippines Shipyard at the West Cebu Industrial Park in Barangay Buanoy, Balamban. This shipyard was the former FBMA Marine of the Aboitiz Group, which closed down during the financial recession of 2008. It has since been bought by Austal, its competitor from Australia. The opening of Austal allows Cebu to continue being one of the top leaders of the maritime industry led by the Tsuneishi Heavy (Cebu) Industries, Inc., one of the world’s biggest shipbuilding companies.

The Presidential visit was also a political event, otherwise that Presidential visit would have been uneventful. But when the President spoke at the Mandaue Sports and Cultural Center; he said in Tagalog, “Bagamat walang nagimbita sa akin, Pit Senyor nalang!” He said this in reaction to the talks that he wasn’t invited to the Sinulog Festival. If you ask me… this was an act of being “binata” or a childish display, very un-presidential of P-Noy!

No less than the Sinulog Foundation, Inc. through its chairman Ricky Ballesteros came out to declare that the President was indeed invited to the Sinulog in a letter they sent to Malacañang, They always invite all the Presidents including those in the past. What incompetence from the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) that failed to inform the President of the invite.

The Sinulog Foundation also gave me a copy of Malacañang’s profile sheet dated Jan. 9, 2013 of the Sinulog event, which even reveals more incompetence by the PMS. These people believe that there will be only 30,000 spectators to the Sinulog Festival. Come now, The PMS ought to know that the Sinulog Festival always attracts a huge crowd of a least a million people…not only 30,000 join the Sinulog Festival. The PSG must know this!

Remember early on his Presidency… his government was dubbed a “student government?” Well, apparently after three years in office, the “students” in his student government haven’t graduated yet!

So we’d like to know, how come the President appeared very sensitive that he wasn’t invited to the Sinulog Festival? I can only reckon that P-Noy was a victim of intrigues. I suspect that some of the Liberal Party (LP) members tried to sow intrigue that since the LP removed Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama as LP standard bearer… in a supposedly retaliatory move these people expected that P-Noy would not be invited to the

Sinulog Festival. These people caused the President to be embarrassed!

* * * We promised you last week that we’d continue our report about the brouhaha happening at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Cebu. So here’s an incident letter from our fellow STAR columnist Ms. Honey Loop.

ÒHello Bobit, I would like to share with you my harrowing experience while trying to renew my passport recently. Last Jan. 7, together with my sister and son, we went to the DFA office located at the Pacific Mall. We arrived at exactly 6.15 in the morning and were told by the guard to follow the line after filling up the form. The office opened at 7 a.m. and soon after, numbers were given. We waited for 1:45 minutes before we got ours. We were told by the gentleman seated to return at 1 p.m. and go straight to the 4th floor.

To our dismay both the elevator and escalators were not functioning due to low voltage. Our numbers were called at 4.30 p.m.. As we approached the booth, my sister and I were told to go to the notarial section as our old passports didn’t have the word city after Cebu. We paid P300 each for a mistake we didnÕt commit.

We were dismayed at the length of time it took to renew our passports, — exactly 10 hours for the whole process. WE were a little fortunate as we were able to go home to have lunch. But what about the hundreds of individuals who came from the provinces? This problem has to be addressed by the department the soonest possible time. All the best. Honey Loop.Ó