PGMA to receive Cebu City’s highest award on Charter Day

CEBU CITY, Feb. 18 (PNA) – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will receive a Rajah Humabon Award from the Cebu City Government during the Charter Day celebration on Feb. 24.

The award is the highest honor the City can give to anyone who has “done gratuitous acts to the general citizenry of extreme magnitude.”

It was initially planned that President Arroyo would be conferred the title of “adopted son” of the city.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena had said that the award, which has no other term for a woman recipient, has long been planned for the President.

Impressed by Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address last July, Osmena then said the city will make her an “adopted son,” especially because that the country has the “lowest inflation rate in recent history.”

Cebu City Councilor Arsenio Pacana, has filed a resolution giving the President the Rajah Humabon Award instead.

The award is for her “immense contribution to the growth and development of the City of Cebu.”

Pacana cited a few reasons making Arroyo deserving of the award.

”GMA’s establishment of the Malacanang sa Sugbo, presidential proclamations for the South Road Properties (SRP), the SRP tunnel, and various projects in the city,” he said.

Among those whom the mayor will also recognize, though they will not receive the Humabon Award, is Punta Princesa barangay tanod Rene dela Cerna, City Treasurer Ofelia Oliva, Miss Cebu 2009 Kris Tiffany Janson, and Luz Barangay Captain Nida Cabrera.

Dela Cerna got shot last October while responding to an alarm on F. Pacana St. near his home: Oliva increased revenue collection in the City by aggressively going after delinquent taxpayers.

Janson, the mayor said, was an epitome of “grace and diplomacy,” which is the “mark of a true beauty queen,” despite the controversy surrounding last year’s Texter’s Choice Award during the Miss Cebu competition.

He credited Cabrera, on the other hand, for leading Barangay Luz in copping a Gawad Galing Pook award for 2009.