Duque lashed city hall after Lim's expose' of colleges

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"Both of them posed that if Phinma –runned-University of Pangasina paid P2 million out of its gross income of P275 million last year, why not Lyceum and University of Luzon paid almost the same amount instead of the P50 thousand and P44 thousands, respectively?"- Mata

By MARIO MATA

I could not understand the reasons of the colleges in Dagupan City that were exposed by Mayor Benjie S. Lim at his recent State of the City Address.

If they are not obliged to pay their business taxes, why they still pay their last year’s dues in January 2011?

Incase they are exempted by law, why they did not “pay it under protest” as what the tax law mandates them to do?

On the 1992 ruling of the Department of Finance of the case of San Beda College that has been zealously cited by the managements of University of Luzon, Lyceum Northwestern University, and Colegio de Dagupan on their letter of protest to the mayor and the city council in February 18, 2011 that they are insulated to pay the mayor’s fees, for Christ sake it was about the mayor’s fees and not the business tax that Mayor Lim enunciated at the SOCA.

In the SOCA Lim said “All of these x x x are of the same size, and more or less, have similar student populations. In 2010, one of the schools declared gross sales of P275 million and paid about 2 million in Business Taxes. The second school declared gross sales of P46 million and paid approximately 342,000 pesos in business taxes; while the third school declared gross sales of P1.5 million, and paid 50,000 pesos in business taxes."

In the earlier press conference this columnist attended with Lim and Administrator Vlad Mata, both of them posed that if Phinma –runned-University of Pangasina paid P2 million out of its gross income of P275 million last year, why not Lyceum and University of Luzon paid almost the same amount instead of the P50 thousand and P44 thousands, respectively?

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SENIOR CITIZENS’ MEETING

Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim (before podium, left photo) addresses the first quarter regional meeting of the Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines (FSCAP), Region I chapter at the Model Senior Citizens Center here last Tuesday. At the guest  table from Lim’s right are Judge Joven Costales, FSCAP Region I president and FSCAP Dagupan chapter President Felipe Siapno. (CIO Photo by Edwin Palaganas)

Magkano ba Vice Mayor O…ang advance na nakuha mo?

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No Pangasinense is drug courier – PDEA

 

By Danny O Sagun

 

DAGUPAN CITY– Nobody from Pangasinan is now facing drug trafficking case in other countries, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

 

But there was one victim from the province of an international drug syndicate in early 2008 who is now cooperating with the agency in the anti-drug courier campaign, said agent Charlton Carame during the KBP Forum at the Philippine Information Agency Thursday.

 

The victim, a woman, was befriended by a Nigerian who was member of the West African drug syndicate who promised her financial benefits as well as marriage. “Nakalaya sya, pero andoon pa rin ang trauma. Noong 2009 nagpunta sya sa atin para tumulong sa kampanya natin,” he said. She was a victim of fly-by-night job recruiters.

 

Supt. Geraldo Roxas, who heads the Pangasinan police community relations unit, also told the forum that the provincial anti-drug task force does not have in its list any Pangasinense who is a suspected international drug courier.

 

On the local front, Carame said PDEA agents have coordinated with the police chiefs of this city and Urdaneta City to map out plans to contain the drug problem. The two urban areas are said to be the major drop-off points for pushing shabu in the province. “May mga plano na kami dyan sa sinasabing problematic areas,” he said.

 

He said he was not discounting the possibility of a shabu laboratory operating in the province but so far earlier reports about their existence turned out to be negative. He said a laboratory may be kitchen type or the processing is done in a ship. “Doon na niluluto pero ang drying sa ibang lugar.”

 

Under Executive Order No. 279, PDEA and other concerned agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs are grouped in task force to combat the growing drug mule problem.

 

Statistics show that in 1993, there were only two drug courier cases. By January this year, the number rose to 689 with 431 females, or 63 percent, and 258, males, or 37 percent. In China, 79 are facing death penalty, six without reprieve and the rest, with two-year reprieve. (PIA Pangasinan/danny)

 

 

 

 

Dagupan’s Patogkawen River has high fecal  coliform level

DAGUPAN CITY – Water samples taken from Patogkawen River exceeded  the maximum limit of 5,000 Most Probable Number (MPN) of total and fecal coliform per 100 ml, and did not pass the standard for Class C type of water, fishery water for the propagation and growth of fish and other aquatic resources.

 This was the result of the fish health diagnostic microbiology laboratory report conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources – National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (BFAR-NIFTDC) along the river last February 8.

The test was upon the request of the city government in line with Mayor Benjamin S. Lim’s commitment to protect the water quality of surface and ground water within the city’s jurisdiction.

 Lim recently created the Sinocalan/Dagupan River Water Quality (WQ) Task Force in compliance with the mandate of Republic Act 9275, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act of 2004, which provides that the State shall pursue a policy of economic growth in a manner consistent with the protection, preservation and revival of the quality of the country’s fresh, brackish and marine waters.

Being the recipient and catch basin of the upstream rivers, Lim intends to reduce pollution of the Sinocalan/Dagupan River system and tributaries as strategy to protect the health of communities, sustain the use of the river as a aquaculture industry, protect the river based ecosystem and comply with the provisions of the Clean Water Act.

 It  has been observed by the technicians of BFAR-NIFTDC that the water along Patogcawen River smells like a rotten egg with either black sediment or greyish black and not too smelly sediment.

The report came after a team tasked by Lim conducted a river inspection and found out that a number of informal settlers are in the river banks and close to the Nepo Mall wall. Mangrove trees have been cut intentionally by the residents.     The team also discovered a sewerage canal flowing through the river.

A blue print issued by the Department of Public Works and Highways showed that the drainage wastewater disposal system of Region 1 Medical Center was connected to the Arellano Street drainage system passing through Arellano Creek going to Patogkawen River.

  Lim requested a dialogue with the administrative officers of R1MC and ordered City Agriculturist Oficer Emma Molina to look into the possibility that other hospitals near any river system are doing the same.

 

Pangasinan has 773 new nurses

DAGUPAN CITY– A total of 773 nursing examinees out of 3,521, or 21.95 percent, from Pangasinan passed the December 2010 Nurses Licensure Examination.

In Baguio City, 1,423 examinees out of 4,472, or 31.82 percent, successfully hurdled the test.  In La Union, 267 out of 1,140, or 23.42 percent, passed. In Vigan, 468 out of 1,595, or 29.34 percent, passed while in Cabanatuan, 354 out of 1,566, or 22.61 percent, passed.

Out of the total 84,287 examinees, 29,711, or 35.25 percent, passed the exams administered in 18 testing centers nationwide.

Director-In-Charge Evangeline Vergara advised the successful examinees to personally sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals and bring the following requirements: duly accomplished Oath Form or Panunumpa ng Propesyonal, 2011 Community Tax Certificate (Cedula), two (2) pieces passport-size pictures (colored with white background and name tag), one (1) piece 1”x1” picture (colored with white background and name tag),  one (1) piece documentary stamp, original and photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate (original copy for presentation purposes only),  and  initial registration fee of P600 and annual registration fee of P450 for 2011-2014.

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The “Lucky Me Noodle” politics

The fault-finding hearing for the still stalled 2011 budget by the Sanggunian Panlungsod of Dagupan City  has stumbled something it used against its enemy.

Councilor Chito Samson gained a mileage for himself when he found out that the prices of goodies for the feeding program for thousand of malnourished children were overpriced.

He said that a kilo of sugar was priced by P25 more than the market price of P135. He added that a Milo and milk have their priced doubled.

But the most contentious issue was Samson’s finding of the price of a Lucky Me Noodle. It was priced at P15.23 when the market price is P6.90 -a difference of P8.33.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez did not waste time to exploit this seemingly grossly disadvantageous price quotation in behalf of the government to embarrass the Benjie Lim Administration.

She even defended the head of the Nutrition Department Lea Aquino who should be getting the axe on this controversy since it is her office that implements it.

“I only do the request but people at the mayor’s office do the pricing,” Aquino retorted to the members of the August Body who asked her.

The Vice Mayor instantly came to the succour of Aquino by declaring she was clean since she worked with her under the past Fernandez Administration.

How could Aquino be clean when a high official at the Mayor’s office showed me the Request Form that was done personally by Aquino. I was told that Aquino “penned” and signed by herself the pricing of the request for the purchase of those things for the feeding program.

But the unwary public does not know this issue. What they know was the Lim Administration has patently done this anomaly.

Thanks to the Vice Mayor and Samson who on their countless media interviews insinuated that the present dispensation has something to do about it.

According to my mole at the city hall, it seems there is collusion between Aquino and some members of the Bids & Award Committee (BAC) to overprice.

He told me that Aquino et al almost copied the prices of the goodies from Aquino’s previous request form in the former Al Fernandez’s administration.

“Si Taba ang pumirma ng request form!” my angry source emphatically told me.

He said Aquino’s explanation at the SP that she does not have a hand on the pricing was self-serving and deceiving.

He said that Mayor Lim and Administrator Vlad Mata (the head of BAC) should be insulated on this controversy.

“It is the Principle of Completed Staff Work” my source explained.

This principle means that Lim and Mata should not be tasked to do the daunting jobs of meticulously looking to each of the prices of the request passed by Aquino.

“There is already an assumption that subordinates like Aquino has done her job in good faith,” my source explained.

But it seems the head of the Nutrition Department has done otherwise.

According to my source Lim reacted to the insinuations of the members of the SP that he has a hand on it.

“Pinapalabas pa nila na pinag-i-interesan ko pa iyung noodles,” the mayor was heard saying to some media men.

The mayor should reprimand, discipline, or sue Aquino and company in the soonest possible time to whatever “shenanigans” they have done.

By doing it, the Lim administration wins again the sympathy of some Dagupenos who have been deceived by the statements of Aquino and the squid tactics by some leaders at the SP.

By doing it, it is square- one again on the mind games with the SP --where everybody knew the latter is bullying the former-- all in the name of selfish politics, and not the “Noodle Politics”, for Christ sake!

Political-Columnist-Wanna-Be; Recall VM Fernandez

Sunday Punch’s columnist Al Mendoza called Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim and City Councilor Brian clowns.

But hardcore dyed-in-the-wool political columnists and radio commentators felt Mendoza is a clown because of his ignorance about the nitty-gritty’s of politics in the city.

He has been clowning ever since he explores the world of political commentary. He doesn’t lived in Pangasinan thus his facts in his column have been obsolete every time he publishes it.

Is this over-the-hill sports' columnist been kicked out from the Philippine Daily Inquirer?

This political-columnist-wanna-be is a big joke every time he opines.

Some media men laughed at him whenever he writes a local issue. He doesn’t have the complete facts. That’s the difference between Al baby and a real local columnist like Ani Lagao, Servito, Alex Tulao, and Jaime Aquino (who is the pound-for-pound king of column writing, my idol). Al lived in Imperial Manila, while they lived in their shanties. They are hooked 24/7 at Bombo-Radyo, Aksyon-Radyo, and others, while Mendoza is hooked to whatever garbage he heard from the rumor- mill.

Looked at this, one of his colleagues at Sunday Punch told media friends that he’s the lousiest columnist there.

Hey Al my man,You wanna know the name of the culprit? Visit me at my hut at the river bank in Brgy. Pantal, and I’ll whisper to you his name.

But oh, please don’t forget to bring a bottle of GSM Blue. We imbibe as I teach you a lesson or two about political commentary ala Thomas L. Friedman.

Ain’t know the guy? He owns the Ache Linda’s Botcha Fried Chicken in front of Funeraria Quegue..

***

Recall VM Fernandez and the majority of the SP?

The snafu in the budget hearing in Dagupan City has spilled-over to include the “War of Words” of the use of “may” and “shall”.

The Local Government Code says in the first paragraph of Section 323 “In case the sanggunian concerned fails to pass the ordinance authorizing the annual appropriations at the beginning of the ensuing fiscal year, it shall continue to hold sessions, without additional remuneration for its members, until such ordinance is approved, and no other business may be taken up during such sessions.”

On the words; “and no other business may be taken up during such sessions”, former judge George Mejia and now legal adviser to Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez says the Sangunian Panlungsod can still deliberate other agenda within 90 days from January 1 despite the non-approval of the new budget for 2011.

He said that when the word “may” is used in law, ordinance, or statute, it means it is permissive and discretionary, and therefore the council has a choice or option on whether or not to tackle other business matters. He said the word “shall” is mandatory.

But former City Legal Officer Dindin Baniqued disagreed with Mejia. She said the operative word that hamper the taking up of other business until the budgetary ordinance is approved is not the word “may” but the word ”no” before the word “may”.

For a TESDA graduate like me, the arguments of Mejia were garbage. Congressmen who made that law were not as stupid as those people who advised the SP to include that “may no other business may be taken up ...” for everybody to violate it by inserting other agenda despite the prohibition.

E di sana hindi na ginawa iyang pagbabawal na iyan kung iba-violate lang ng mga Sanggunian members.

***

It seems the City Council of Dagupan runs under the tyranny of the majority who continue to stall the P568 million budgets for this year.

With the city operating under the P490 2010 re-enacted budget every Jose and Josefa in the city would be in a bind.

I heard that collection of the garbage will be suspended again for an indefinite period because the hauler trucks that ferry them have bogged down.

The city could not repair them because the appropriation that comes from the re-enacted budget has been depleted.

So the best thing to avoid this “cataclysm” is for somebody to ask the mayor to ask his barangay captains and kagawads (councilmen) to initiate a petition of recall against Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and the majority of the Sangunian Panlungsod who continue to give us pain in the ass.

It’s so simple: After the ban for recall of one year ends in June 30 this year, it takes only a majority of the village chiefs and the kagawads to sign a preparatory recall assembly to call for an election for the post of the perceptibly “stalling” vice mayor and the allegedly tyrannical majority in the council to be held this August this year.

This practice provided by the Local Government Code will be good for everyone.

First, voters would be celebrating again. Imagine, candidate would be ingratiating to the voters through dole-outs and pakurong (a scintillating Pangasinan word that means a candidate for public office gives money or goodies to voters in the eve of a poll).

Second, appropriations for the essential programs like budget for the repair of garbage trucks, dredging machine (to avoid floods by dredging the accumulated silts near my house at the river bank in Brgy. Pantal), and foods for the thousands of malnourish public school pupils would be implemented in the soonest possible time.

All of these would happen because the tyranny of the majority at the council would no longer be around in August to inflict unbearable pain to us Dagupenos.

BFAR prohibited by law to venture in business?

Dagupan City mayor Benjie S. Lim will have the last laugh on the fate of the P110 million Bangus Processing Plant in Brgy. Bonuan Binloc.

A proponent of the plant when he was the mayor in the early 2000s, BPP was given to the city government under the stewardship of then mayor Al Fernandez after former Speaker Joe de Venecia who eked-out a grant from the South Korean government.

But after Mayor Lim defeated Fernandez in the 2010 poll, the latter dominant allies at the Sangguniang Panglungsod passed a last- hour resolution that was signed into law by Mayor Fernandez. This resolution is about the transfer of ownership of the BBP to the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources.

The reason was obvious; they hated Mayor Lim so much that they would die cursing themselves if Lim would be allowed to enjoy what their ally Speaker Joe had toiled.

After they succeeded in that transfer, would BFAR now succeed running BBP as business entity that gears for export of process milk fish, "siganid", shrimps, prawns, oysters and others ?

Transfer of BBP to BFAR has created more problems

For this writer who frequents the Pigar-Pigar and Kaleskesan, the resolution of the SP to give the BPP has created more problems.

I feared that if somebody from this city files a taxpayer suit with injunction by questioning the proprietary capacity of the BFAR under Dr. Westley Rosario or his capacity to enter into contract with a private entity to commercially run the BBP— there lies the very big problem.

My fear here is BFAR was made into law through Republic Act No. 8550, whose titles say "An Act Providing for the Development, Management and Conservation of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Integrating all laws pertinent thereto and for other purpose. My fear is congress has not empowered that statute to give BFAR proprietary rights.

 The title of the law is even understandable to a last section third year high school students at the public city high school. It says what it is empowered for.

Unless congress amends the BFAR law, BPP is another white elephant in waiting.

The case would be different if BPP is run by the city government under Lim. An opposition but pragmatic SP that looks for the general welfare of Dagupenos can empower the city to enter into a proprietary venture through the BPP.

But with congress as the only authority that can amend the BFAR Law, it would take years if not eternity especially its benefactor former congressman de Venecia is no longer the speaker of the House.

With the dissension and dichotomy between the city legislative and executive bodies too obvious not to ignore, I am seeing a Mayor Lim sheepishly smiling to what the opposition in  the council has done to the precious P110 million bangus plant and the employment opportunities that all go awry because of shellfish, er, selfish politics.

Mind you, this “shellfish politics” would be the Achilles Heel of those who signed the resolution giving the BBP to BFAR.

A bias unreasonable City Council

Dagupan City’s  Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and the tyrannical majority members of the Sanggunian Panlungsod  (SP)stonewall again. Their latest stunt was disallowing city mayor Benjie S. Lim to deliver the State of the City Address (SOCA) at the City Astrodome- a bigger venue.

They stated that the mayor can lay his program and delivered it at the third floor of the session hall that is a little bigger than the embalming rooms of some funeral parlours in the city.

“But I want to deliver my SOCA before the 31 barangay captains, the 279 brgy. kagawads, and the thousands of “Anang” and “Anong” of Dagupan,” the mayor probably says in a letter to Vice Mayor.

“No”, retorted by the vice mayor as broadcast by her cabled TV USA.

“It was the decision of the majority of the SP to hold the SOCA inside the session hall,” the Vice Mayor elaborated.

“But former Mayor Al Fernandez delivered his SOCA at the Astrodome when he was the mayor of the city?” asked and cried by a supporter of Mayor Lim who was with me at the top of the coconut tree when we were watching our neighbour’s cable TV.

“That was what our decision for him to deliver his SOCA at the Session Hall and not at the Astrodome,” insisted by Vice Mayor Fernandez.

But many of Mayor Lim’s supporters dread like crazy the miniscule third floor edifice as it would collapse like a house of cards.

Before the eyes of my fortune teller pal in Quiapo, this latest friction between the SP and the mayor is good for the popularity of the latter.

***

Has the Vice Mayor and the tyrannical majority at the SP members deceived the people?

An emphatic Mayor Lim told the media last Friday that what the SP has done last Friday was a “disinformation and falsification of a fact” when it put a huge streamer for the public to read.

The mayor’s declaration at his office ensued after he vigorously ordered his staff to pull-out the streamer made by the SP (or was it Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez?) that he would deliver the SOCA at the SP on February 14.

“Streamer na sinasabi na gamit pangalan ko na magdeliver ako ng SOCA  sa Sanggunian. Hindi iyon ang sulat na ginawa ko. Malinaw na malinaw na sinasabi nila na mag-dedeliver doon ng SOCA sa SP,” he said.

“That’s lying, that’s misinterpretation. Masama iyon. Bawal!”.

A media man asked the mayor to justify his decision to deliver the SOCA at the Astrodome at the morning of February 14 instead inside of the “phone-booth” sized Session Hall?

The following were his answers:

He said it is analogous with senators going to the House of Representatives because the House of Representatives is bigger than the House of Senate.

He said the SOCA is like a Report to the Nation. It is for the people.

The SP could not accommodate the tens of hundreds of throng that would go there and listen to their mayor.

He could not understand why the SP members insist that he delivered his SOCA at the Session Hall

“Sabi ko nga, e kung pumasok diyan ang 500 na ta-o at nagkaroon ng stampede”, the mayor explained.

For this columnist wannabe (like that wannabe political columnist at Sunday Punch’s Al Mendoza) the poser I kept asking myself:, E kung nag-collapse nga iyung SP building, o nag stampede nga ang mga ta-o doon at naapakan ako ng tumatakbong babae doon na mataba? Anu kaya ang kahihinatnan ko?

Rude officials of DPWH in Sta. Barbara

Secretary  Roger Singson of the Department of Public Works & Highway should check the misdemeanours  of its officials at the 2^nd Sub-Engineering Office at Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan.

They rudely treated a media man.

The media man told me that when he asked a certain “Janet” who acts as the liaison officer of the whereabouts of her boss Eng. Mayette Mendoza, Janet without any reasons shouted at them “Wala si maam dito! Nasa field!”

He said he could not understand since two staff of Mendoza told him that the latter was just at her office as she just arrived by pointing to him her blue pick-up truck.

He said he was embarrassed by being shouted upon as there were people who were at the hallway of the sub-district at that time.

He said the actuation of this liaison officer was condemnable that he wanted to report this to the National Press Club.

He added that when he persisted to enter the office of Mendoza, the latter was no longer there. He sensed that Mendoza hid at the dining room at the back of her office.

When Janet appeared again, she loudly told the two media men that her boss was already angry.

“Bakit naman ganoon ka-bastos ang mga ta-o doon?” another media man asked his sorry colleague.

His friend could just shake his head. He said they went there to ask two disturbing questions relayed to them by a public official who are bothered by alleged corruptions at the public works office and its commissioned contractors.

The unfortunate media man said that he would be asking Eng. Mendoza why ten dikes under the watch of the public works collapsed when Tyhoon Juan ran over it in Sta. Barbara.

He said was it because of defective construction by those contractors?

Were the defects were results of government officials at the DPWH and politicians pocketing up to 40% of the funds of the flood control projects like dikes that made these contractors construct a haphazard dikes because they want to recoup their expenses?

Tsk, tsk! These were not posed because it takes only a “rude” Janet and an “angry” Eng. Mendoza to deter them to stay longer at the lounge of Mendoza.

Why not our friends at ABS-CBN and GMA-7 try to go there and ask the same questions?

Janet and Mayette, wait for our friends as we would just watch to our living room how you answer these questions.

Oooh, and to our friends  too, at the National Press Club.
***

This column welcomes two BIR top honchos in Region 1 and Pangasinan who were part of the recent reshuffle done by tax commissioner Kim Henares.

Regional Director Arnel Guballa and Revenue District Officer-4 chief Catherine Cardona.  Guballa comes in the Camanava (Caloocan-Malabon-Valenzuela) area, while Cardona comes from Ormoc City.

We will be watching you guys.

I heard from BIR insiders that the previous RDO-4 chief there has done some hanky-panky in the collection of taxes from conspiring taxpayers.

According to my source, the RDO chief in cahoots with some Examiners there has billed a certain taxpayer with a tax at the tune of P200 thousand. The taxpayer conspired with his contact by asking that his tax be mitigated. Examiner brought him to the RDO chief. The chief told the tax payer to pay P100 thousand. But the abetting taxpayer, who should be thankful because he helped robbed the government, has learned to hate the guts of the RDO.

 Why? RDO issued a receipt acknowledging to receive (brace yourself) a measly sum of P20 thousand only.

It’s obvious that the P80 thousand have been divided by those vultures there.

We have a lot of stories about how transactions were being illegally processed there that run to millions of pesos.

One reasons for the reshuffle of BIR RDOs happened because half of them did not reach their goal last year.

The Aquino administration hopes that with the new reassignment that saw an RDO from Pangasinan assigned as far as Zamboanga City, the P930 billion tax goals this year would be collected as his government did not add any tax measure to boost the budget of the government.  

Shallow destructive politics played by the S.P

Dagupan City mayor Benjie S. Lim could not hide his displeasure in a press conference he called recently to the members of the City Council who stonewalled his 2011 budget.

He said he wanted to “un-mask” them.

He lamented how the August Body did not act on the P568 million city budget for 2011 that he submitted last middle of October 2010, but acted pronto to the conversion of the swanky hotel site application of the family of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.

He deplored that the non-approval of the budget undermines the pay hikes of the city workers, and the 3,700 severely malnourished school kids the city feed twice-a-day.

Smarting words like “I want to un-mask them”, “Misplaced priorities” were used against the unreasonable allies of the vice mayor.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. I could only shake my head listening to the troubles the councilors and the vice mayor have given the mayor.

Their actuation is obviously to wreck his administration by depriving it by P70 million precious sums for his pro-people program.

With it, he slides to the 2010 re-enacted but limited budget of P498 million.

With a re-enacted 2010 budget, the city council succeeded in ripping-off Mayor Lim.

But the SP does not know that they tread on a dangerous ground.

They do not know that the more they rip Lim’s programs, the more they stump their constituents to the abyss of abject help.

Their non-feasance manoeuvring gives bad taste in the mouth. Well meaning members of the media know this. Eventually, their much larger affected constituents would learn their destructive act.

Some of them could not even give a reason why they did not convene a committee to hear the merits of the new budget.

Some of them went to radio and reasoned that they were not able to deliberate because they were busy helping the victory of their allies in the recent village polls.

 Did the Omnibus Election prohibits and penalize elective officials like them to interfere in an apolitical village poll?

This is scary. They just exposed their ignorance to the public.

Ignorant people have no place to play politics in a sensitive issue like the budget.

City Council’s shallow destructive politics

This is shallow destructive politics as its best.

They are just there to stonewall without giving a tinge of reason why they stonewall.

With a proper media handling on the part of the Executive, These recalcitrant dads will pay their politics dearly in the bar of public opinion.

The casualty in this power play is not Mayor Lim but the people of Dagupan who would be suffering from inefficient services.

Lim could just go to the radio and TV and say: “These are my pro-people programs. I have 3,700 severely malnourished kids. But I could not feed them because the vice mayor and the councillors want to put me in a bad light. They are bad people harming innocent people like the underpaid government workers and those kids”.