By Nora Soriño
ILIGAN City--“Saying goodbye to someone you love is dying a little,” it is said. So, amid stories about the novel coronavirus in all news media that had somehow numbed us the past few days, there was one piece that had added to the heaviness that was January 2020. It was about Brexit.
Finally, a “goodbye” for the UK to the European Union. A much delayed final goodbye.
It had been a “tentative” goodbye since its citizens voted “Brexit” in 2016.
After that, a dilly-dallying, a hesitancy, a sort of denial especially for its prime minister then, Theresa May. She had then struggled to hold on to the EU.
When a new prime minister succeeded her in the person of Boris Johnson, he, too, got May’s thoughts. But this time, he was pragmatic. There was no more point of holding on. So he just held on to get some concessions in some matters, like the matter of debts. And the “kill” which should not be very fast but softly, as in the “transition period.”
And so, by the end of January, reports say, the final goodbye ended “almost half a century of integration with its closest neighbors and leaves the European Union.”
Johnson said, “This is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes.’’
Sad for him and the rest who thought like him. But happy for those who really voted for it.
That particular goodbye brought back memories of the then National Steel Corp. in 1999 when it bid goodbye to its operations. There was a motorcade then in the major streets of the city as if they were not saying goodbye. And then there were some “dramatics” at the city public plaza. The then-mayor Franklin M. Quijano was one of the “dramatis personae.” I mean he was one of the speakers.
Some tears were shed for NSC. But the “inggiteros” who did not have jackets to flaunt as “collaterals’’ for some goodies, said, “Mirisi.” As in “you guys deserve it.”
NSC, too, was in denial for years. That it was about to collapse.
The difference between Brexit and NSC was that the former was a decision coming from the people. On NSC, it was a management decision. The company had to stop because it was forced by the situation. It had no more cash to proceed. Its money was then borrowed from 10 banks. Not 10 ten banks, but from the city government as well. The city has claims over P2 billion in real property taxes due to it.
So, under Mayor Celso Regencia, city hall made a decisive action. It occupied the NSC grounds in 2017.
The decision left the liquidator team by the roadside, literally. Its head, under Atty. Danilo Concepcion, just had to watch all these, by the roadside.
There’s an ownership battle now between the two teams -- liquidator and city.
But they say that “you cannot claim victory until the territory is occupied.”
And occupy, the city did!
Wait. We were talking of Brexit. What is its relevance in this NSC matter?
The two are in the same situation. And in a different situation, too.
Like, the “goodbye” of the Britons from the EU was January 2020. NSC was in 1999 yet.
As it is, it seems there would be no return of the UK to the EU.
As for the NSC, city officials say there would be some return of the come back of the operations should a good investor come.
Prime Minister Johnson among other things said, “Britain is never coming back.”
As we said, there’s a transition period though. But legally, it’s no longer a member of the EU.
People there, at least those who voted for it say it as “an unaccountable, overly bureaucratic institution.” This European Union.
Johnson speaks of a “dawn, a new beginning,” for Britain. Because it has finally shaken away from the EU.
Here, Vice Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz speaks of a “banagbanag” or dawn because NSC is coming back. There’s a good investor on the horizon, meaning, the city’s crown jewel will really come back and maybe with a vengeance for the unbelievers to see.
But as of the moment, all is still quiet in the NSC front even if the city has occupied the territory, and even using the area for other purposes like serving as the “campus” for a college called Colegio de Iligan.
Wait a minute. For we have just seen the spectacle of two clashes of personalities in the American front. US President Donald Trump during the State of the Union Address did not shake hands with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi, on the other hand, could not be outdone. She dramatically tore some pieces of paper for everybody to see. Was it a copy of the speech of the “state of the union” of Trump?
I’d say this isn’t goodbye gestures for them. It might only be “so long.”
But if you “Tagalogize” it, it becomes “sulong!”
