CebuTimes

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Valentine’s Day is less than a week away. If you’re still wondering where to spend your love night, I suggest you spend it with Lea Salonga at the Waterfront hotel’s grand ballroom on Feb. 14. She’s having a concert there entitled, “In Love with Cebu.”

However, it’s not Lea I want to write about. Rather, it’s what comes before her. Instead of the usual front act of another talented singer, the producers opted to feature something different. So they talked to friends who suggested putting on stage students of Marie Ernestine School (MES).

It so happened that MES was already in the drawing board for their annual school play slated for March. They just had to advance their schedule to be able to produce it on Feb. 14 for Lea’s concert. And what a fitting play it would be for Valentine’s Day.

The play is entitled, “The Princess Bride,” based on the screenplay of the popular movie that starred Cary Elwes and Robin Wright (who was then not yet married to Sean Penn). The difference is MES added original songs into the script to turn into a musical play.

“The Princess Bride” is set in the days of chivalry and knighthood and is a love story with witty dialogue, swashbuckling scenes and music that will make you swoon. What’s more is that seeing these talented young students of MES perform will surely make you feel love rekindled in your heart.

It would be an excellent aperitif to the main act of Lea Salonga who will surely bring the fullness of love into her audience.

Bringing in the students of MES to perform as a front act to Lea Salonga is a stroke of genius!

Click here to send money to the Philippines with Xoom. ONLINE & CONVENIENT – LOW FEES – GUARANTEED. Send now.

I’m writing this blog on my laptop under battery power because of a power failure in Labangon where I live.

I called up the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) and they couldnt tell me when the lights would come on again. They said the power failure was due to a power shortage in one of their substations and, when they tried to turn the power back on, an explosion occurred.

You want to know what I think? I believe it’s pure incompetence on their part. This is not the first time this has happened. They’re simply not maintaining their equipment or their equipment is outmoded. Yet, I’m paying an arm and a leg just to get electricity running into my home.

It astonishes me how our city would vie to host an international summit when our electric company can’t even get its act together. How I wish that, come the Asean Summit, a huge brownout would take place so Veco and its owners, who are probably asleep right now in their air-conditioned rooms, would go down in history as the greatest embarrassment the Cebuanos ever had.

But then again, knowing how thick-faced oligarchs can be, perhaps not. Maybe we should just call Veco the Visayan Enept Co.

Okay, so enept is spelled wrong, but I don’t think Veco would notice.

Click here to send money to the Philippines with Xoom. ONLINE & CONVENIENT – LOW FEES – GUARANTEED. Send now.

Architect Manuel Guanzon, irked by criticisms that the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) wouldn’t be finished by Nov. 15, offered a bet of 1.5 million pesos that it would.

And who accepts the bet? Former Senator John “Sonny” Osmeña.

I can’t help but admire the man! By publicly accepting the bet he set 3 conditions: one, he wanted an independent group of evaluators to determine what “finished” means; two, he wanted 24/7 access to the construction site; and three, he wanted to see the plans and blueprints.

Guanzon replied that the conditions were not his to grant, but the oversight committee’s. Of course! But it doesn’t matter. I don’t think Osmaña is really interested in the money. I believe the point he’s making is, “the CICC construction better be above-board.” After all, it’s the taxpayers who’re paying for it.

And that’s why I admire John Osmeña. By using the Mother of All Bets, he gave notice that the Filipino must come first, not an elaborate show to impress foreign dignitaries.

Click here to send money to the Philippines with Xoom. ONLINE & CONVENIENT – LOW FEES – GUARANTEED. Send now.

City councilors move to demolish food and beverage stalls in front of Mango Square for the rowdiness of their patrons. The council meetings are rowdy enough and they don’t want competition.

——-

Street vagrants (better known as “taong-grasa”) are being rounded up and sent back to their families or the DSWD in preparation for the coming Asean Summit. Maybe they should round up the city councilors along with them.

——-

Parish priest fires church secretary. He’s accusing her of issuing anomalous receipts. Or perhaps she wasn’t “tithing.”

——-

Former Cebu Customs Collector Lourdes Mangaoang files libel suit against the Tulfo brothers, Ramon and Raffy. She claims it was actually an extortion scheme. Hmmmm … maybe it does take one to know one …

——-

Parishioner goes to Archbishop to complain about his parish priest. He says that the priest’s sermon is insulting. Perhaps the parishioner should go to God instead and repent.

Click here to send money to the Philippines with Xoom. ONLINE & CONVENIENT – LOW FEES – GUARANTEED. Send now.