Hopeful Cebu

The results of the recent elections, in which the powerful Garcia political dynasty was clobbered, bring new hope for Cebu City and Cebu Province.

- TERESA S. ABESAMIS

Although I lived in Manila most of my life, my migratory family has lived in Cebu for over 60 years. During our early years here, we were quite impressed with the good sense and independence of Cebu voters. They consistently chose leaders who cared about the welfare of the province and its people. The names still ring a bell: Osmeña, Briones, Jakosalem, Cuenco, etc.

During the latter part of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.'s dictatorship, the only organized opposition group, Pusyon Bisaya, was based in Cebu. Their leaders, notably Hilarion Davide and Filemon Fernandez, were aggressive in criticizing policies of the authoritarian government. Marcos, who was then trying to impress the global political community, tolerated their dissent.

When our family moved here in the late 1950s, Cebu City was a quiet city, whose narrow and very old roads were plied with caretelas (horse-drawn carriages), called tartanillas by the locals. I could hire one for an hour to take me and my baby sister around the main road, then called Jones Ave., which fronted the provincial capitol and made a U-turn at the rotunda known by everyone as “Pwente” (Fuente Osmeña). Most of the streets were very narrow as they were built centuries earlier by the Spanish colonial government in the oldest city in the Philippines. Automobiles had not yet been invented then.