For her to say that “a Cebuana can hardly speak English” has its forgivable and unforgivable sides. For someone like her whose acquaintance with the Cebuanas is apparently sourced from junk soap operas or sick sitcoms, or from underpaid Cebuanas who labored so hard to serve as uniformed nannies and househelps in Manila, I would dismiss her statement as
product of ignorance – and that is forgivable.
The unforgivable side to it is that, it demeans our system
of education in Cebu alluding to the notion that our colleges and universities only produce mediocre Cebuanas who barely know English in their four years of academic labor. Incidentally, however, seven of the ten top notchers in the most recent nursing examination came from Cebu all without the aid of interpreters in an all-English conducted test.
And to Miss Gloria Diaz, you did not only lose the admiration and trust of the Cebuanos, you’ve just lost your self-respect from them. The Cebuanos will be more at peace to think that it is better to lose in every Miss Universe pageant than to have won it by someone like you.