Cebu is home. It’s where I was born and raised. But why do I no longer recognize you?
Bald mountains. Polluted oceans. Skies covered by high-rise buildings. Barely any trees. Is it any wonder why it’s deathly hot and humid these days? It’s not just global warming. It’s the absence of trees. It’s the presence of trash in the rivers and streets.
I sigh when I tell the twenty-somethings what it was like when I was a child.
We went home for lunch every day. And there was still enough time to play when we got back to school. There was no traffic. No intense heat to deal with. Air-conditioning was not necessary.
We drank from the faucet. And no one got sick. We were told that one day, our water supply would dry up. We would have to buy water and drink from bottles. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like.
We played “takyan, tubig-tubig, Chinese garter and jackstones.” And I loved the monkey bars. I wonder if children are even allowed by their parents to play on the monkey bars these days. Or are there any left?
I loved reading and I didn’t stop reading till I ran out of books to read. What a wonderful world it was without gadgets.
Today, when the sun goes down, the streets become dark and dangerous places. Unlighted. Unsafe. Full of potholes and manholes. Practically no sidewalks in many parts of the city for people to safely walk on.
Recently, I’ve been racing through the streets of Mandaue and I’ve noticed something different there — the presence of lights and the absence of potholes. Perhaps, they were the “best parts” of Mandaue.
But I assume that in Cebu, races would also be held in the “best parts.” Well, I weep if the Cebu City roads I’ve raced in are already the “best parts” of the city.
It’s not just the absence of lights and the presence of potholes.
Have I mentioned the stench of trash that blankets the air in the early hours of the morning that makes it difficult for us to breathe? And that’s just for the trash we cannot see. There is also the trash piled up on the side of the streets that is so sad and unsightly that also brings disease.
And I haven’t even talked about the flooding yet. The traffic, the inconvenience, the loss of income, the destruction to property, the danger to lives, the hazards to public health that flooding brings.
Every time it rains, runners pray. We run to stay healthy, not to die if we get infected by leptospirosis, stumble over a pothole, or worse, fall into a manhole. Road running shouldn’t be like trail running. But let’s take running out of the equation.
Every time it rains, everyone worries. Because everyone is afraid of flooding. Typhoon Tino is fresh on our minds. I worry because I don’t know what’s happening in the mountains. And because I know there are no more trees. Is this so hard to grasp?
Why must we continue living in a city of darkness? So many of our streets do not have sufficient lights or do not have any lights, at all. Is it so hard to light our streets?
These days, the heat can be fatal. But so can a pothole or a manhole. A fall by an elderly person can be fatal. Is it so hard to fix the potholes? And now, there is the haze that can slowly kill us, as well.
There are things we can do little to change but there is a lot we can do about so many other things.
Life has taken me to over 150 cities around the world. No city is perfect, but a city that does little for the health and safety of its residents is not a livable city. Where is the safe haven, source of pride and home I have always looked forward to returning to?
I long for you, Cebu.