How Vlad Mata sees Dagupan and RP; SSS-Dagupan to be sued?

Dagupan City Councilor Brian Lim

City Administrator Vladimir Mata

Barangay Tapuac ‘s favorite next Brgy. Captain number one council member Sidney Lomboy found himself recently in a bind with operatives of the Civilian Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) who carried a warrant for his arrest.

They said he was charged of non-remittances of the Social Security Service dues for several years in favor of his employees in his two Sidney Bars & Restaurants located in Tapuac Proper and the new De Venecia Highway.

SSS ordered him to pay P68, 810 for the delinquencies and P57, 469 for the corresponding penalties.

But Lomboy said he already long settled those amounts with SSS-Dagupan City branch under Manager Cesar P. Saludo.

He told me and my Taliban media friends that he mulls to sue because of the pain, anxiety, and moral damages Saludo and company’s incompetence have brought him and his family.

He said Saludo’s office did not withdraw its Complaint-Affidavit for the non-remittance case (a criminal special law that confused even the CIDG) against Lomboy  at the City Prosecutor’s Office in Dagupan.

As a result the probable cause charged of the fixcal, er , fiscal was corroborated by the judge thus the well-televised ‘invitation cum arrest” of Lomboy at the CIDG’s office in the city.

His supporters suspected that some political rivals for the village chieftain have been behind the tipping of GMA-7 to   put him in bad lights. 
***
Look who wrote your columnist a letter? It was City Councilor Brian Lim and his reaction to my last week's column "Who wins? Gonz’s “ Solutio Indebiti”, Brian’s “Estoppel “ that saw print on my blog, excerpts:

"To clarify my position regarding the issue, I stated during the session that the claimants may be estopped from claiming that they are exempt from paying their business taxes. but of course, this is for a court of law to decide. Now, given that there is a case filed by UL (University of Luzon) regarding this issue, I believe it is a matter of inter-departmental courtesy (being a co-equal branch of government, and the chief arbiter of the proper interpretation and application of all laws) to give the court ample time and leeway to decide the case. The issue is still sub judice. I appeal therefore that all sides refrain from commenting on the issue as a show of proper respect to the judicial branch of our government."

***

Aside from the 29 pages colorful booklets that showcased the economic-social-political landscapes of Dagupan City given to me by prolific Administrator Vlad Mata  (who brained child the book), he asked me and media friends to see how the Benjie S. Lim Administration tackles the various challenges the Bangus City faces in the Local Development Council meeting recently at Pinkies Restaurant.

Guest speaker was a passionate government USec Elmer Mercado who told kapitanes, city and village officials that they should have a plan to mitigate the perennial flooding.

“Mahirap ng mag-plano pag andiyan na ang program. Dapat 10 years ago pa ang implementation ng plano,” he emphasized.

He discussed there in the vernacular for everybody to understand (like the mostly English handicapped kapitanes and my media hao-shiao friends) the nuances of squatters. He said it should be the leg-worked of the Department of Environmental & National Resources to relocate them since they settled at national government’s properties, but instead it is the LGU like Dagupan that faces the headache where to relocate and how much money to shell-out for their relocation.

***

He told us that the presence of Robinson Mall in Calasiao is welcome news for the city government on the predicaments of the illegal settlers in Dagupan.

Progress in neighboring Calasiao means exodus of the squatters to that town who will hail from Dagupan and other LGUs in Pangasinan.

He said Dagupan should not be surprised why squatters descended (I used this word ‘descended” because the Under Sex, er, Under Sec told everybody there that the city is located at the bottom of the topography in Pangasinan and Benguet thus the flood).

“It is because of the bullish economy of Dagupan and the economic opportunities she offers to them,” he said in Pilipino which I painfully translated to Shakespearean English in this column because my publisher is a Chinese-American.

“Ikaw Mario puedi lang sulat dito diario ko English o Fukien Chinese lang,” I was reprimanded in a halting Tagalog by my publisher before who has a phobia for libel suit.

“Wag mo gaya iyong Mortz Ortigoza na may sampu libel suits, mahal piyansa dyes mil bawat isa, di ko kaya”.

“福建省福建省福建省, yes madam,” I retorted in my halting Fuckien, er, Fukien Chinese.

***

In a huddle later, City Administrator Mata lectured me and my Taliban friends how to be an in-depth opinion writer.

He told us that we should read voraciously so we can give intelligent information to the people unlike this paper’s rival Sunday Punch newspaper -- whose opinion-writers are as shallow as the substandard concreting of highways by the Department of Public Works & Highways under the offices of its District Engineers in Dagupan and Pangasinan.

He told us to ponder on his observation.

He said backward Vietnam has eclipsed already the Philippines in snaring Foreign Direct Investment.

“Vietnam came out of 30 years of war in the ’70s. Its $56-million foreign investment in the ’80s was puny, compared to our $2.14 billion. But by the ’90s its $13.38 billion already overtook our $11.88 billion. In the 2000s Vietnam’s $35.29 billion was double our $16.34 billion”.

He said Vietnam’s $35.29 billion overtook even Thailand’s $ 31.46 Billion in 2000s.

He said our sorry Philippines have been left already in the “Kangkongan” by these two countries.

Their secrets, Mata posed, is their government offers 100 percent foreign ownership of industries there.

Mata said we “xenophobic” Pinoys offers a 60-40 equity in favor of Filipino entrepreneurs who lack monies unlike their foreign counterparts.

With Mata’s incisive observation, Dagupanoes could be assured that the “Little Mayor” of Dagupan and his mayor run the city in the right direction.

With Mata’s incisive observation, my media friends could be assured that another round of Mang Inasal or Jollibee Chicken Joy or San Miguel Lights are in the offing.

With Mata’s incisive observation, I am proud that he and I have the same surname “Mata” which means in English as “Chito Samson”, este, “Mouth” pala!

Who wins? Gonz’s “ Solutio Indebiti”, Brian’s “Estoppel “

Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim

By Mario Mata

Since 2001 Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) pays business tax and other fees to the city government of Dagupan City without qualms.

Early this year a columnist posed a title on his column “Tax cheats in Dagupan City?” in reference to owners of educational institutions in the Bangus City.

Later, Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim in his State of the City Address wondered why “University 1“ (a lot of people presumed it was University of Pangasinan)surprisingly paid P2 Million, while Universities 2 and 3 suspiciously paid only P342,000, and P50,000  of their business tax due in 2010.

He said it was suspicious because all the three universities have more or less the same enrolment.

Hell broke loose thereafter as LNU president ran ‘berserk” by taking offense on the tax cheat’s insinuations of the mayor in his SOCA.

Lim denied, however, saying “the cheat thing”. He only said many in the city under-declared their taxes which is a bad practice for the progress of the city.

Gonz said that he found out just this year that the city government committed illegal exaction as there was no ordinance –as enabling law- to back up what the Local Government Code of 1991 mandates Dagupan to collect business taxes to its constituents.

“The city should reimburse my school by P6 million that it illegally collected since 2001” Duque was heard  telling selected media men after the RH-Bill forum graced by Rep. Kimi Cojuangco (   5 th District, Pangasina) at his college the other week.

If Gonz cried “Illegal exaction!”, the mayor’s son and city councillor Brian Lim rebutted him with “Estoppel”.

It means Gonz and owners of private schools are already barred to be reimbursed before the eyes of the law what they paid because they have been paying for decade without even a “squeak” of protestations.

 “So what’s your take on the ‘estoppel” rebuked from Brian Lim?” a media man was heard asking Atty. Duque.

“Solutio Indebiti,” Gonz emphatically replied to the question.

Solutio Indebiti, for the sake of those ignoramuses at the media profession, means a situation that arises when a person through mistake, pays what is not due by him under any civil or natural obligation either because there was never an obligation or because it was already extinguished or because he pays that which is due but not by him or because he pays that which is due but not to the person who receives it.

With Gonz “Illegal Exaction and Solutio Indebeti”, and Brian’s “Estoppel “, who wins?

We could not say for the meantime. These craps are questions that need the meticulous evaluation of the court  of law in the city.

Atty. Gonzalo Duque, President of Lyceum Northwestern
University

Unless Benjie and Gonz including the owners of private schools amicably settled this problem before it goes into a full blown court case in a basketball court or elsewhere.

Rumbling in Jueteng: Many media men are deprived of payola

In the recent visit of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala in Pangasinan, many would probably ask what the heck was that “Secretary’s Time” at 1:30 Pm to 3:00 Pm in the itinerary provided by his staff .

I was just lucky that one of my hao-shiao (fake media) pals took a peek at the list of the secretary’s destinations in the mammoth naked Princess Urduja province.

‘Secretary’s Time” is where Alacala broke breads with former governor Victor Agbayani at his residence in Lingayen town.

As a perceptive-wannabe and wannabe opinion writer, here is my poser:  Why would a secretary visit a losing bet in the last poll? Is something cooking with this guy Victor?

***

At ito pa ang nasagap kong tsismis: There was already an explanation why Victor was defeated big time by incumbent Governor Amado T. Espino by half-a-million votes.

You ask former provincial information officer Ruel Camba who is that sitting mayor in the second district telling some mayors how Victor was defeated.

Ruel can tell you two juiciest details. But you invite him first to some honky tonks for a quid pro quo.

***

A media man who told me he sent his children to college through “pitpit” (what is that?) told me there are two media organizations in Pangasinan marred with internal issues.

One, who has a leader who tell those who bother to listen to him that he is the best, has a sluggish attendance because members avoid it like plague because egos there are too much but monies from generous politicians are “No Mas (Spanish words of “No More).

“It’s the president who could solicit,” an old scribe commented in a column, “and members could fend for themselves whenever they are hospitalized or in a financial bind”.

“Mabuti pa iyong dating press club, kahit kawatan iyong mga presidenti pag nagkasakit ka may maasahan ka sa kanila for their intercessions to Good Samaritans.

The other media organization, run by women, are on the brink of fall-out.

Bakit? Kasi iyong other faction wanted to solicit funds but has asked their president to allow them with a blanket authority where to get funds from donors whom they have the power not to divulge.

Ano ba iyan? Dapat transparent para walang masabi ang mga members niyo.

A Chinese observer commented on this brouhaha:

"ラドクリフ、マラソン五輪代表に1万m出場にも含み @#$%^&*&!!!"

***

I read a news headline in one of the local websites “Jueteng is Back in Pangasinan with a Vengeance” by lined by Brando Cortez.

I thought after the Court of Appeals has lifted out the Temporary Restraining order applied by Meridien Vista Gaming Corp -to operate Jai-Alai in Pangasinan, jueteng (that used this Meridien game as cover) goes to the abyss with it.

“Lalong lalakas iyang jueteng issue na iyan as long as some media men are not given their payola by the protectors in the province and in the cities,” a media man who writes in the national paper quipped.

A certain Harold Barcelona, who told me he was once a hot shot broadcaster, told those who dare to listen to his harangue that some media men are given P1000 a week from a protector.

He told me and those Manila based opinion writers that he would provide the names of those who are on the take in those radio stations and some local newspapers.

Was this Barcelona guy just envious because he was not given a payola he used to receive before?

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Abusive Trike Drivers in Urdaneta City

Tricycle drivers in Urdaneta City are no different to their counterparts in Dagupan City.

They billed with impunity a commuter even the distance of their service is less than a kilometer.

 A media man is willing to file a complaint so it can serve as deterrence to other abusive drivers in that burgeoning city.

He told me he rode a trike near Nepo Mall for Jollibee .

The driver billed him P20.

He said the seemingly ignorant POSO (Public Order & Safety Office) officer even sided with the abusive driver who has all the gall and confidence to agree with the passenger to accompany him to report his crime. The officer said the amount was above board if there was a stipulation between the driver and the passenger.

 But there was none.

“It is insane to bill P20 for a distance that was only half –a-kilometer. There should be an ordinance that should detail how much one should bill a passenger, and what corresponding penalties one should be meted,” the disgusted opinion-writer said.

Mayor Gregorio “Bobom” Amadeo E. Perez IV and Vice Mayor Onofre C. Gorospe could post at the blog of yours truly located at the bottom of this column when they want to invite the media man so he could formalize a complaint against this erring driver.

 The writer has the city number of the trike and the name of the POSO enforcer.

***

Abuses of trike drivers in Urdanata should be stopped!

Let’s not wait that what happened in Dagupan City ensue there.

In the recent official visit of the vice mayor of a town in Iloilo, he was  excessively mulcted to pay P150 from Victory Liner to neighboing Lenox Hotel (less than half-a-kilometer in Distance) by  the proliferating “broad daylight” robbers in the Bangus City that got the goat of Mayor Benjie S. Lim.

Woe to the visitors that visit that city. They do not know the tricks to be spared by these abuses. The tricks one should know if they are in Dagupan:

1) Do not ask how much you are willing to shell; 2) Read how much bill you are going to pay at the fare matrix posted at the inside front mirror; and 3) Pretend that you are a wary city dweller even if you hailed from the mountain of Timbukto in Ifugao.

***

A president of an organization in Pangasinan should still be learning the rope what makes a successful leader.

He should learn what made Mayors Nani Braganza and Lim of the cities Alaminos and Dagupan, the Mancalalays of Calasiao, and the De Venecias.

They are not only leaders who steer the progress of their constituents; they are leaders who intercede for their constituents who are in distress like hospitalization.

As what I heard, there is a snowballing disillusionment to this leader’s style.

They said even with issues that haunt the past presidents, they were there extending a help or two by tapping some selfless friends.

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Is Bani Mayor Navarro a schemer?

The Mayor of Dagupan City faced off again with the City Council led by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Now, it is about how much fare a commuter in the city shells out to the mostly abusive mulcting tricycle driver one can experience in the Bangus City.

If I am not wrong the Council wants a rider pays P10 for a two-kilometer ride, while Mayor Benjie S. Lim wants a wider kilometer.

Insider at the city hall only laughed at the majority of dads at the council. He told me that after the mayor had vetoed the proposed ordinance, the vice mayor and the majority of the councilors could only just bang their heads at the wall.

He said they could not muster the nine (9) two-third votes to over ride the veto.

He said even the eight (8) votes that they have been using before to ram the throat of the chief executive in his every proposed ordinance could no longer be emulated.

Political observers said one of the solons has been bought already.

They told me the vulnerability of this solon to change horses is his propensity to gamble in the casino.

***

The looks of Mayor Marcelo Navarro of Bani, Pangasinan can be deceptive.
He does not look like a former police general who graduated from the elite Philippine Military Academy.
He is a soft-spoken person who projects refinement in life.
But some political spectators told me that when he left Lakas-Kampi Party to join the Liberal Party in the 2010 poll – that got the goat of his mistah Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino -
he has already in his mind the congressional post of the 1st District of Pangasinan.
But Lakas-Kampi and the governor’s bet Representative Jesus “Boying” Celeste was so strong than the ten Samsons combined that made Navarro backtrack.
Probably a follower of Sun Tzu and Carl Von Clausewitz he instead seek reelection for the mayoralty of his since-time-immemorial pathetic Navarro family run town Bani.
***
Recently, he told media men of the Patrima Press Club in Dagupan City that the Sangguniang Bayan (Town Council) led by Vice Mayor and Atty. Filipina G. Rivera and the five members who composed the “tyrannical” majority conspired by disapproving all his programs.
They said they were not sitting on their jobs.
***
One of the lady councilors Gwen Yamamoto said that they even increased the town’s budget for this year by P6 million.
They said if they were not doing anything, as what Navarro wants the media to believe, then those laws and the budgets they passed would not happen
They declared it is unfair for Navarro to accuse them of taking orders from Congressman Celeste in Bolinao and Governor Espino in Lingayen.
“We have our own decisions”, one of them stressed.
Now, Navarro, Vice Mayor Rivera, and the members of the SB all face a recall petition issue.
In-case Navarro lost in this election it means the people in Bani do not like him because they probably disliked his schemes and ineffective leadership.

CONTRARY TO ALLEGATIONS: PSU-Alaminos operation legal – CHED

By Benjo Rivera

There is absolutely no truth to allegations by private colleges that the establishment and/or operation of the Pangasinan State University-Alaminos Campus is illegal.

Dr. Caridad Abuan, CHED Region I director, made this clarification amidst massive disinformation allegedly being spread by conniving owners of private colleges about the operations of the PSU-Alaminos campus during an exclusive interview with the Northwest Sun.

“Hindi illegal ang establishment or operation ng PSU-Alaminos,” Abuan stressed.

Director Abuan, however, said that the Board of Regents of the PSU had decided not to offer in the campus curriculum three programs namely BSBA, BSIT and Hospitality Management “until PSU-Alaminos has met all the CHED requirements.”

She said students of the campus taking up other programs have nothing to worry about, “ituloy-tuloy nila.”

The PSU-Alaminos Campus which has enrolled hundreds of poor students who cannot afford to study in the very few but mostly commercialized private colleges started operation in 2010 as part of Mayor Hernani Braganza’s crusade to provide quality and affordable college education.

Braganza, whose family owned the Great Plebeian College which was similarly affected by the rise of the PSU-Alaminos, said that “as mayor of Alaminos, I will see to it that this provision of the Constitution that says that it is the right of every Filipino citizen to have quality education is made a reality.”

The establishment of the PSU-campus gained the support of various quarters including Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim.

“The establishment of the PSU-campus in Alaminos is a “novel cause that deserves to be equaled,” Lim said as he announced his intention to also establish a state campus in his city for poor Dagupeños.

Mayor Lim advised those engaged in private education business to also consider helping poor students who want to study in college and “not just profits.”

Scoundrels in media

Ping De Jesus's replacement at the corruption-prone Department of Transportation & Communication should be a man of impeccable integrity. One of the personalities President Benigno Aquino III should look is Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza. His sterling records in government service speak for themselves. He left the Arroyo Administration as a cabinet secretary because he could not stomach the intramurals and corruptions there.

One week after the submission of the irrevocable written resignation by Ping, undersecretaries Dante (our kabaleyan), Glicerio Sicat, and Ruben Reynoso have followed suit by resigning in mass, too.

Would these three posts vacant for politically unemployed province and city mates’ former Pangasinan governor Victor Agbayani, and former Dagupan City mayor Al Fernandez?

It bode well for Pangasinenses to see kabaleyan who belong to the Liberal Party lost in the last year election.

Just imagine if Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim and Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino lost last year.

They would have a China man’s chance to be appointed after the one year ban for losing bets.

But thank God, they won.

Now, its buy one takes two for us.

Benjie and Espines for the local scene.

Al and Victor for the national scence.

In short, a scintillating scene for Pangalatoks.

***

Media man Rannie Manaois exposed in his column Medialante the alleged swindling activity of fellow media man Atong Remogat. Rani wrote in the vernacular that Atong pocketed P30 thousand that Bugallon Mayor Ric Orduna, Atong’s boss at the Presidents’s Office of the Pangasinan Mayors’ League, donated to a Bikini Fashion Show  in San Carlos City.

So, what’s new with the Pangasinan media. It is an organization abounds with scoundrels, hypocrites, extortionist, and estafador.

Even female members compete immorally and criminally with their male counterparts.

Have you heard a media woman running with thousands of pesos of media monies given by elective officials like congressmen in a certain city?

Have you heard media women living with another woman’s husband?

Have you heard an old lousy male announcer running with the money given by a mayor of Malasiqui when his companion, a newspaper columnist, was still interviewing the mayor?

Have you heard an old media man cutting the share of unwary colleagues who covered a particular big time politico?

Have your heard about a media official moralizing about the immorality in the media, but his actuations do not speak for himself?

Have you heard about a PR man of another big time official who pretends that no monies were given by his benefactor in an event –so that he could pocket some and give some to those media men who are loyal to him?

My Gaaaad, I got a lot of adverse stories for them that this column could not accommodate to narrate.

Lessons from Alaminos; Dagupan City VM Fernandez should worry

I could not understand the myopia of the critics in the broadcast and print media, and at some fora  of Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim.

Lim brought the entire village chiefs of the city except for one for a cruise cum study tour to Southeast Asian countries Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Lim told the public that every kapitan paid the tab of their trip.

Enemies and critics of the mayor would not believe him. They said they would face an anti-graft and code of conduct cases at the Ombudsman.

My Gaaad, where’s logic here?

Where are the public funds they were bitching and bellyaching that Lim et al. splurged abroad?
***

By the way, the village chief that did not join the tour was Bonuan Gueset Barangay Captain Rico Mejia. I, together with the NBI, FBI, CIA, and Interpol are verifying the authenticity of the reports that Mejia did not make it because he was busy waving to well wishers from his village who accompanied him to the airport in Manila. According to the raw reports, Mejia stood at the movable stair opposite at the door of the commercial jet unmindful that the plane had took off hours ago and left him alone at the tarmac holding the proverbial bag of fresh Bunuan Bangus he should be giving as gift to Singapore’s Senior Adviser Lee Kuan Yew.

***

At the behest of some fake media men where I associated myself since I joined this sorry-trade (they told me kasi nahinto ang jueteng kaya hindi lucrative ang media. “You ask the mayors,” they said) I was able to have some chit-chats with a veteran politician who reigned as mayor for countless of years.

He told me that Lim’s rival for the mayoralty in 2013 Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez should worry a lot.

He said she should treat also the kapitans including Brgy. Captain Mejia and the councilors in a safari-junket in Congo, Tanzania, Somalia, and some God-forsaken countries in Africa.

“When I won as mayor, I got only two councilors. The rest were with my rival who used to be a long reigning hizzoner, too. But I treated them to nightclubs in Dagupan only for some times. I gave them booze and bitches. I asked them to write in a piece of paper what they want every time we would approve a major ordinance or resolution,” he said.

He said these “bastards” bastardize their being an opposition. Because in every decision the mayor needs with their imprimatur, they were not opposition but willing conspirator, este, ally for progress of the chief executive.

He said bonds developed between a mayor and his subordinates in a tour like what Lim has done lately. “And these should worry Belen a lot,” he told us.

***

Officials of towns and cities in the Philippines should take a look how a small city like Alaminos in Pangasinan eased up the financial dilemma of parents in sending their children to college.

Mayor Hernani Braganza said that 45 deserving student from public schools in his city can enroll to any four-year course anywhere in the Philippines by providing each of them a stipend of P80 thousand a year.

In that P7 million appropriation he said:

“They should be the crème de la crème of the class who passed the qualification examination (the city gives).

He continued that of the half-deserving secondary level graduates, they could still avail of the scholarship the city gives by providing each of them a stipend of 50% or P40 thousand a student a year.

Thanks to his teamwork with the City Council and Vice Mayor Cesar C. Manzano -- who used to be in the other camp in the 2010 poll.

As a result of this collaboration, Braganza, a former rabble-rousing activist, congressman, and cabinet secretary, said that he chalked-up with them an imprimatur from the august body a fund of P10 million a year for 1000 public high school graduates to study in colleges anywhere in Pangasinan.

He said each of the students receives P5 thousand per semester.

He continued that they could get their preferred two or four-year course.

He said that even those Alaminians who are already working can avail this “once in a lifetime” privilege.

In his earlier pronouncements he said, 600 high school graduates out of 3,000 can only enter college

“How can your succeed in life pag wala kang pinag-aralan ngayon?,” he posed to village chiefs and their constituents who attended the  kicked off of “Computer Van-Aralan” in Lucap Wharf. A noble project he inked with Party-list Representatvie Catalina  Leonen Pizzaro and AIHU Foundation.

***

“Hindi po, kasi three years ang time-table natin. Madugo ang tibagan ng bundok. Madugo, hindi biro iyon. It will take time one year or one-year-and –a-half para tibagin iyung mga bundok”.

This was what Mayor Braganza told me when I interviewed him at the Lucap Wharf when I asked him when the people would see an airport in his city.

He said the construction of an airport has phases.

Presently, he is at the acquisition phase of lands for the runway and tarmac of the 2.2 kilometres airport.

He said that the city has just received a P75 million from the Department of Transportation & Communication to compensate the procurement of 42% of the land acquisition.

“Ito land acquisition lang. Ibang budget iyon (tarmac, etc.). Although nabili na ang kalahati, mas maganda kong bibilhin na lahat para kung mag-expand man in the future ay hindi na magmahal ang presyo. Hindi na magkakaroon ng squatting problem.Iyon ang nangyayari e iyong ilang delays hindi binili kaagad. So mi nagpatayo ng building,” he stressed.

He prayed that within this year another funds are in the offing from the DOTC for the concreting of the runway and the tarmac.

His venture is two-pronged:

He said government spend for acquisition (his city did not resort to the time consuming expropriation since property owners there were amenable for the buy-out) up to the concreting. The other one is a private sector initiative through the Private-Public-Partnership that would invest to the terminal’s venture.

He said this venture runs up to P2.2 billion.

What Nani is doing is a welcome moved.

Tourism business in Cebu, Davao, Boracay, and others thrive because they got viable airport (and ubiquitous and comfortable hotels).

With an airport, tourists particularly those newly and  financially minted Chinese Mainlanders who are just hundreds of miles above Alaminos would descend like Moses and the Israelis from Egypt to the tourism promise land located just down under in the China Sea through those medium range Boeings and Airbuses.

My Gaaad, they would be spending monies that give multiplier effect not only in the city but in the huge province of  Pangasinan.

If those tourism phenomena happened in those local places I mentioned and in Bali, Indonesia, Phuket, Thailand, they could happened too in Alaminos that offered a lot.

***

Oh, I was in Alaminos recently when somebody invited me to witness the kicked off of Nani’s new project “Computer Van-Aralan. A noble project he inked with Party-list Representatvie Catalina  Leonen Pizzaro and AIHU Foundation.

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Braganza-Morante verbal exchanges continue

In the recently Barkada Kontra Droga program sponsored by Dagupan City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez at the Stadia in the same city, yellow t-shirts were distributed to guests and participants.  At the back of the tees were huge group picture of smiling pro-Fernandez councilors who impliedly exhorts the public to join them in their fight against illegal drugs.

I overheard a media man over a bottle of Emperador Brandy who said that those images at the back of the tees were a posed for sheer hypocrisy.

“Some of the people there were users of illegal drugs!,” he quipped.

Is this accusation true? As a native of Mt. Tralala, this damaging accusation is new for me.

***

I heard  from some media hao-shiao (fake media men) that Dr. Ruben Morante, owner of PASS College in Alaminos City, was looking for me in a press conference in Dagupan City where he was the guest speaker.

He was quoted to quote my last week’s blog (yes, to the traditional media, it’s blog in the internet, not your traditional column that saw prints in the mostly fly-by-nights newspapers in Pangasinan) where he reads my column on Alaminos City Mayor Nani Braganza. As a result of that blog, he said he would read his answers to the criticisms he got from Nani for the latter not to “lagari (saw)” him. Mayor Braganza, as a guest of Patrima’s Press Conference headed by Mrs. Lelia Sy, emphatically declared to all and sundry that he would sue Morante because of his libelous and slanderous remarked against him and his city.

I disagree with Morante’s statement that the City of Alaminos should not get a 30% share from the net revenue of the newly established Pangasinan State University in that city.

I found nothing anomalous on that arrangement inked on a Memorandum of Agreement between the Mayor and the leadership of the State University.

Alaminos bankrolled the construction of edifices, materials, and equipments of PSU.

It was a wise moved on the part of Nani . Alaminos would be earning another source of revenue that could even be used to fund more scholars to the same college, or elsewhere.

Dagupan City should emulate this smart move. She can build a college like the one owned by Urdaneta City.

Urdaneta University gives a windfall to the city coffer every year that her 2011 budget would shame the budget of every city in Region 1 now.

It even built recently a P220 million Sanitary Landfill that would see cities of Dagupan and Baguio as client for their heaps.

It even built a P3 million granite statue of a huge carabao menacingly guarding the intersections of her main thoroughfares. We can just pray that the water buffalo with its long sharp horns, a symbol of Urdaneta’s economic superiority, would not hurt the passers- by there.

With a city- run college in Dagupan, the city does not only earn another source of revenue but could be a buffer to universities and colleges in the city that exact prohibited fees from students. It could also be  a benchmark for standard among some of the tertiary institution there that have been warned by the Commission on Higher Education because of their notoriety to produce graduates who could not pass a government sanctioned board examination.

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Braganza to sue Morante; Lim’s windfall from Veto

Dagupan City Mayor Benjie Lim

Alaminos City prolific Mayor Nani Braganza

Media men have a great time in a press conference called by Mrs. Lelia Sy – the president of the media group Patrima.

She brought recently Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim and Alaminos City Mayor Nani  Braganza at the function room of Jollibee-Lucao in Dagupan City.

Lim was game. He said Nani is fortunate.  He can go in and out of the presidential kitchen.

“When President Noynoy Aquino comes in Pangasinan he selects who would be invited, who would not be,” he said with a winked.

Guffaw ensued among media men as they remembered what happened in the town of Bani.

“His uncle is FVR (former president Fidel V. Ramos), His amiga is GMA (former president Gloria M. Arroyo), and he is the amigo of P-Noy (President Benigno Aquino III).

“How you call that?” Lim posed. “We call that as CONTINUITY!”

Guffaw ensued again, including the likewise gamed Mayor Braganza.

***

But Nani became serious later.

The owner of Pangasinan Accountancy & Science School named Mr. Ruben Morante called him grafter. He said Morante (who was the guest recently of Atty. Gonzalo Duque in his Pangasinan Press Club, Inc) has been denouncing his administration lately.

“He called us grafter. He said the construction of the PSU (Pangasinan State University) in Alaminos has no permit and did not pass a bid.” Morante has the same accusation on Mayor Braganza’s procurement of computers.

Nani said he would not resort to those kinds of shenanigans because he has a name to protect.

He continued that out of 100% who graduated in high school in his city, only 10% enrolled and finished college.

He wants to help send those who belong in the 90% to college with an annual appropriation of P10 million.

“It’s not only the school of Mr. Morante  that is affected, so is the  college (Great Plebeian College) owned by my family,” Braganza elaborated.

What took the goat of  Nani was after Mr. Morante went to his office and told him (after those scathing  name callings against the mayor)  “Kung gusto mung maging  legal iyan (Nani’s pet project PSU building that also took the goat of owners of colleges in Dagupan City) papasukin mo ako (on the P10 million city’s scholarship program where some students would be sent to his school).

“That’s extortion!” a livid Nani said.

“He is selfish”, “Kasakiman”, smarting words the mayor implicated to Morante.

After Morante assailed his administration with libelous remarks Nani emphatically declared: “WE WILL SUE HIM!

A newbie media man who attended for the first time a press conference pulled the back clothes of my barong tagalong  and quipped: Matapang pala si Mayor Nani, LA-LAGARI-IN niya si Mr. Morante!”

***

Lim told us that the selected vetoes he resorted against the line items of the City’s 2011 budget initiated by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez’s friendly councilors bode well for his administration’s budget.

To the un-initiated on the ear-splitting dichotomized politics of Dagupan, here’s the synopsis of what happened:

1)      P498 million plus  was the 2010 budget of former Mayor Al Fernandez

2)      P568 million was the 2011 budget Lim wants the City Council to pass.

3)      P487,116,296.73. was the reduced gutter-politics smelling budget approved by the politicized City Council.

“I proposed P1.5 million for Tourism, but the City Council cut it to zero. So I have to use the re-enacted budget (of 2010) worth P1.5 Million,” Lim explained.

He did similar vetoes to some line items that the council reduced unreasonably.

The veto of Lim did not see a 2/3 votes (9 out of 13 dads) over-ride from the Sangguniang Panlungsod because one member of the nine did not appear when his colleagues were geared for the over-ride. Nakunsensiya siguro sa mabahung pulitika ng mga kasama niya.

Lim said his administration is P40 million richer if we based it on the approved budget of P487 million.

Is the deficit of one head for the 2/3 members of the Council to over-ride any veto was the reason owners of educational institutions were ambivalent of their plan for an ordinance from the council that is ready to grant them? Instead they would file a case in court against the city government why they are billed to pay business tax in the city.

Oh, if you don’t know, these universities that criticized the Lim administration were University of Luzon and Lyceum Northwestern University.

According to Administrator Vlad Mata, Lyceum Northwestern University paid around P800 thousand to P900 thousand as a business tax in the past while University of Luzon paid around P60 thousand to P65 thousand compared to Phinma-run  University of Pangasinan which paid P2.5 million this year.

These discrepancies scandalized some Dagupenos since these three colleges have more or less the same enrollees.

Is something smelly here Marine Lt. Colonel Mata (Reserved)?

 (You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Hypocrisies of school owners in Dagupan City?

Lim vs. Duque?: At left is Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim and Atty. Gonzalo Duque, owner of  Lyceum Northwestern University

Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim exposed the hypocrisies of the owners of educational institutions in the city recently when they appeared and aired their grievances at the City Council to exempt them to pay business tax and other fees to the city.

Some media men who interviewed the mayor were one in saying that Councilors Chito Samson, Karlo Reyna, and Dada Reyna should inhibited themselves on the deliberations of the exemption  as they are either part-owner or descendants of owners of the University of Luzon – one of the colleges that joined to ask for the exemption.

The mayor and some of the media people at the Mayor’s Office agreed that it seems the City Council is bent again to railroad this exemption-ordinance.

***

Mayor Lim told us that he is going to veto this improbable ordinance.

He said that the statements of one of the complainants (Atty. Gonzalo Duque) that was quoted in this column before that Lyceum North-western University and other schools should not be levied taxes because they are linchpin of the local economy by bringing people to the city.

 Jesus Christ, this argument is patently ridiculous and manifestly illogical!

Thus this was what the answer of the mayor:

“In the same manner the trading company bring people here. The hotels also bring people here, di ba? The hospitals also bring people here. Hindi lang educational institutions. Class legislation iyan (in the Council) kaya hindi puedi. Dapat magkakaroon ng masusing public hearing. Kagaya ng nangyari kanina, pina-fast-break na naman ng SP (City Council the ordinance),” the mayor chuckled.

He said that in case the city gives exemption to these entities, it would be a precedence to other entities to follow suit.

Lim said that in case all schools are exempted because of the statute from the Council he is at a lost where would the city get its revenues it used to get from these taxpayers.

“Imagine, isang unibersidad  (University of Pangasinan) paid two million pesos plus ang binabayaran! Kung exempted lahat iyan ibig sabihin nawala ang P2.5 million, samantala iyung mga nag-hain ng resolution na ito (Lyceum North-western and University of Luzon particularly) wala  pang isandaang libo (they paid every year). Maski kaunti pa ang taxes na binabayaran nila kesa sa isang Dunkin Donut sa Downtown,” he chuckled again.

The mayor exposed how inconsistent one of the acrimonious owners of these institutions has been telling the public:

“Dati rati sinasabihan ng isang proponent diyan exempted sila. Ngayon, na pruwebahan hindi sila exempted. All we know, they are trying to get an exemption by virtue of an SP resolution for an ordinance ergo no exemption to talk about. Ano iyung exemption na sinasabi nila?”

***

What these proprietors were bellyaching were sheer hypocrisies, my dear mayor! As this issue drags, the more these owners expose themselves to the public eye.

Keep the good work mayor, this is a combustible issue you and the people of Dagupan would surely win.

Enough of these hypocrisies!

  (You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)