Friends of slain German to hold farewell toast

by Michelle Joy L. Padayhag
Correspondent

CLOSE friends of slain 31-year-old German Henry Haffner will hold a toast in memory of his good deeds at the Cebu Rolling Hills in Mandaue City tonight.
“Henry will always be remembered as a happy person. He did not want his friends or me to be sad that is why I decided to organize this event for him,” said Haffner’s girlfriend Sheila Jane Gimutao.
Haffner’s fellow volunteers and friends from “Volunteer in Cebu” will drink his favorite “jagermeister”, a famed German liquor made of 56 herbs, blossoms, roots and fruits.
Gimutao said they will also play Haffner’s favorite song, the John Legend hit “All of Me.”
“I could still remember that before the song became popular he introduced it to me via online,” she said.
Relationship
The toast will be joined by Haffner’s friends in Australia and Germany online through Skype, Gimutao said.
“This is to show to the people what kind of person Henry was,” she said.
Haffner was among the foreign volunteers who helped victims of the earthquake in Bohol in October and later assisted families that were hit by supertyphoon Yolanda nearly a month later in 2013.
Haffner and Gimutao met during a relief mission in Tagbilaran, Bohol in 2013.
Despite their six-year age gap and cultural differences, Gimutao said Haffner did his best to make their relationship work.
Understanding
Both of them are engineers who love to travel and participate in relief missions and feeding program for children.
After a two-month vacation in the country, Gimutao said she and Haffner went to his hometown of Duderstadt, Germany.
She said Haffner was interested to buy a lot in Cebu so he could have a home during his regular visits in the country.
Gimutao held back her tears as she recalled Haffner to be an understanding boyfriend.
Delayed
“He’s the most patient man that I have ever known despite my attitude. He was a smart person. In times that I had problems, he would always tell me to calm down. Sometimes I could tell that I am not good enough for him,” she said.
Meanwhile Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said last Friday’s shooting incident in Talisay City may affect Cebu’s tourism industry.
She said she is worried over how the incident will affect the province’s Our Cebu program which aims to promote Cebu as an ideal place to “live, visit and invest.”
“I am worried that the program will get delayed because of what happened,” she said.
Our Cebu is a program in partnership with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI).
Unplanned encounter
Magpale said she hopes an early solution to the issue can be identified.
“It seems like an unplanned encounter. I hope no drugs were involved,” she said.
Provincial Board (PB) Member Sun Shimura said he will file a resolution asking police to install random checkpoints throughout the province.
He cited the case of PB Member Alex Binghay’s aide who was reportedly injured in an ambush near Talisay City Hall.
Shimura also said he supports the proposal of Talisay City Councilor Danilo Caballero to amend a city ordinance requiring all business establishments in the city to install high definition CCTV cameras within their premises.
“We need to have it checked by the Provincial Legal Office on whether we can require business establishments to do this,” Shimura said./With Correspondent Victor Anthony V. Silva