77th Charter Day Cebuanos should unite for growth

SERVICE AWARDEES. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama (3rd from left 2nd row) and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella (3rd from right front row) with some city councilors pose with the individual services (from L-R) Augusto W. Go for Education and Philantrophy; Philippine Navy Capt. Vicente L. Cejoco for Military Service; Ms. Virginia P. Vamenta for Media; Mr. Francis O. Monera for Business and Industry; and Dr. Resil B. Mojares for Journalism and Literature.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama admonished divisiveness, saying it is a threat to Cebu City’s sustained growth.
For the city to continue its growth, Cebuanos will have to stand as one.

“We cannot make our country strong if we cannot even make the cities strong,” he said.
This was Mayor Rama’s message in yesterday’s 77th Charter Day celebration.

Some of the country’s great leaders tried to block the passage of the law on Cebu’s cityhood 77 years ago and the same crab mentality continues to exist, Rama said.
The celebration of Cebu City’s 77th charter started with a Eucharistic celebration held at 7 a.m. at the Plaza Sugbu fronting city hall’s legislative building followed by a flag raising ceremony at 8 a.m.

Present during the celebration included Fernandito and Corazon, the surviving children of Don Vicente Rama, and city officials led by Vice Mayor Edgar Labella.
Senior citizens, war veterans, leaders of the city’s Muslim community, law enforcers and city hall employees also attended the event at the Plaza Sugbu.

While City Hall employees gave him a loud applause during their acknowledgment, Rama broke the news that he will not be giving them a Charter Day bonus this year.
He later told reporters that bonuses and other salary adjustments will have to come later “because our focus now is (rebuilding the city) hospital.”

Rama also thanked law enforcers led by Cebu City Police Director Noli Romana for keeping the city peaceful and orderly since the All Souls and All Saints Day celebration in November up to the Valentine’s Day.
From the Plaza Sugbu, Rama led city officials, department heads and employees to the Pahina Central Fire station where Don Vicente Rama’s bust monument is located, for the annual floral offering.

In a second message he delivered before the floral offering, Rama said that the city’s progress is an indication that his great grandfather did not die in vain.

Service awards

At the Marco Polo Hotel last night, Mayor Rama conferred service awards to individuals and institutions.
Leading the service awardees was the 83-year-old Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who was given a lifetime service award.

Outstanding institution awards were given  to the University of the Visayas Chorale, the Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.

Five individuals were given outstanding awards: Capt. Vicente Cejoco of the Philippine Navy for military service, Francis Monera for business and industry, Augusto Go for education and philanthropy, Resil Mojares for journalism and literature and Virginia P. Vamenta, Cebu Daily News columnist, for media who also gave the response in behalf of all the awardees.

“I feel honored to be here with all of you tonight. I wanted to share to all of you what I have been through all these years,” Vamenta said during his speech while on a wheelchair.

A Cebu City centenarian Dionesia Atega was also given an award. Atega went on stage in a wheelchair. She was given a P100,000 check by Rama.

Posthumous awards were also given to the families of war veteran Col. Manuel Segura (1919 -2013) and Atty. Esperanza Valenzona who championed the cause of child prisoners and the Share a Child Movement.
Rama ask all the awardees to savor and cherish the recognition they received from the city.

“There is no substitute to giving it all in the name of love,” he said./with reports from Jose Santino S. Bunachita