Local officials who dismayed Pangasinenses

by Mario Mata

Why Dagupan City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez sings a different tune these days?
Recently she was heard to say that she and majority of her allies at the City Council has just passed the  supplemental budget of P7,750,000 for the village chiefs and their constituents for them to join the Bangus Festival of 2011.
Was the changed of mind the result after Mayor Benjie S. Lim declared that if the Council would not passed the appropriation, he would use his own money to bankroll the Gilon-Gilon (Street Dance) traditionally and customarily participated by the 31 barangays?
Has somebody advised her not to make the mayor spent from his pocket because this would be another propaganda quo against her sagging political popularity?
Many Dagupenos took notice that the vice mayor played double-standard when she did not question the P3 million budget the council gave to her when she oversaw the Festival last year.
The P3 million budget should be the funds of Tourism and Cultural Heritage- front offices to attract tourists and employment in the city.
Fernandez and her ilk’s, er, allies put a zero budget to the Bangus Fest this year after they passed the obviously prejudiced downsized P487 million budget from the proposed P568 million.
***
Pangasinenses are disappointed with their elected provincial officials. I overheard a political operator telling a politician to run for the vice governorship in the 2013 poll.
He explained to the attentive politician that Vice Governor Ferdinand Calimlim would not win in his re-election as he is one of those responsible why the scandalously spiraling Real Property Tax bled dries every Pangasinenses who pay the land tax.
Imagine, every body was howling after they learned that the 100% they paid became 300%. The P1000 became P4000, or the P10 thousand became P40 thousand. Thanks to the fast one called by political science students as rail-roading Calimlim and the members of the Sangguniang Panglalawigan had done.
***
I heard there too that Calimlim is called as a political sissy.
Earlier last year according to the source, Calimlim went to the office of machine gun-mouth Board Member Ranjit Shahani. Shahani, who was a veteran savvy former congressman, lectured the vice governor that he should be working up to the wee hours.

Shahani was comparing his work rates as vice governor to the seemingly “lethargic” performance of Calimlim as the second higher provincial official.

Here’s another disappointment.
Another big political personality told me that Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil (Pangasinan, 2^nd District) has disappointed many of his constituents when he voted “No” for the Article of Impeachment against allegedly incompetent and corrupt Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez when five of congressmen –including Abono Representative Eskimo Estrella - who stayed in Pangasinan voted for the impeachment of Guiterrez at the Senate.

“Has Bataoil has a pending case at the Ombudsman?” I asked my source.
He told me in the affirmative.
He said the former chief of National Capital Regional Police Office was charged with the blunder of his policemen in Paranaque where they allegedly shot 16 people including Alfredo de Vera, a seaman, and his daughter Leah Alyana, 7 from Bayambang, Pangasinan after they cornered suspected robbers in the highway there.
(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/)

Operasyon ng jai-alai pabubusisi ni De Lima

ANG inyo pong lingkod ay labis na natutuwa sa isinasagawang imbestigasyon ni DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima sa operasyon ng jai-alai na front daw ng jueteng ng Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation.  Halos lahat naman kasi ng mga lokal na opisyal na kinausap ni Atong Ang ay alam kung ano ang tunay nitong operasyon.  Hindi nga lang natin alam kung aamin ang mga lokal na opisyal dahil malaking porsyento ang mapupunta sa kanila kapag nagbigay sila ng permit sa Meridien.

Pinupuri din po natin si DILG Secretary Jesse M. Robredo dahil umaksyon na din po siya sa issue at kinumpirma nga nya kay Sec. De Lima ang “resurgence” ng jueteng sa probinsiya ng Pangasinan, Isabela, Oriental Mindoro at ilang parte ng Metro Manila at ang ginagawang front ng mga ito sa iligal na operasyon ay ang Meridien daw ni Atong Ang.

Sa salitang kanyang ginamit na “resurgence,” kinumpirma na rin mismo ni Sec. Robredo na matagal nang walang jueteng sa mga nabanggit na mga lalawigan at ito’y lumabas o umusbong lamang muli ngayong may front na itong Jai-alai.

Sino ba talaga ang nagbigay ng license o permit para mag-operate ang jai-alai na ginagawang front ng jueteng sa ibang mga lalawigan? May nagsabi sa atin na kamakailan lamang ay nakakuha sila ng “license to operate” mula sa Games and Amusement Board ngunit ito ay license na mag-operate lamang daw sa loob ng CEZA!  Kaya nga ang ating tanong ay ligal ba ang operasyon ng jai-alai sa labas ng CEZA?!

Napakarami na ng mga lalawigan at bayan ang kanilang napasok sa buong bansa ngunit hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa din nila mapatunayan na ligal ang operasyon nila sa labas ng CEZA. Lalo na at maugong ang balita na ginagawa lang naman daw nilang front ang jai-alai sa kanilang jueteng at mashiao operations.

Isa pang tanong na hindi nila mabigyan ng kasagutan ay kung nagbibigay ba ng share sa gobyerno itong jai-alai na ito ng Meridien? At sino sa mga  ahensya ng ating gobyerno ang may “supervision” sa sugal na ito para masabi na ligal sila? PCSO o GAB ba?

Kung mapapatunayan nila na ligal ang operasyon nila at may nakukuhang share at pakinabang ang gobyerno mula sa kanilang operasyon ay baka sakaling huminto na ako sa pagbatikos sa kanila!

Ito ang mga katanungan na dapat nilang sagutin at hindi kung sinu-sinong personalidad ang idinadawit nila kapag may mga nahuhuli silang mga tao na maaaring gumagamit sa kanilang front ng jueteng!

Teka muna, saang lugar ba naglalaro o nilalaro ang jai-alai na ito? Saan ba makikita ang fronton nito? Sana malaman din natin kung saan? Gusto lang naman natin dito ay makinabang ang gobyerno pati na ang lahat ng bayan sa buong Pangasinan!

Sa Pangasinan, hindi ko na kailangang magsalita, dahil kilala naman ako ng aking mga kababayan at alam naman nila kung sino ang talagang humahawak at nakatutok doon.

Kahit araw-arawin n’yo pa ang paninira sa akin at kahit anong mga kwento pa ang inyong imbentuhin,  hindi kayo paniniwalaan ng mga kababayan ko dahil kilala nila ako at alam nila kung ano ang totoo!

Kung may mga mapaniwala man kayong tao sa mga paninira at “demolition job” niyo sa akin dahil mukhang napakalaki ng pondo na inilaan niyo para sirain ang reputasyon ko, hindi ako maaapektuhan dyan, kahit araw-arawin niyo pa dahil alam ko na lalabas at lalabas din ang katotohanan!

Sumasang-ayon din po tayo sa ihahaing resolusyon sa Mababang Kapulungan ni Congressman Erico Aumentado ng ikalawang distrito ng Bohol na hihiling ng isang malawakang imbestigasyon sa  operasyon ng jai-alai dahil may nakikita itong anomalya at iligal dito.

Hihintayin natin ang pagpapatawag ng hearing sa Mababang Kapulungan at susubaybayan natin upang malaman kung sino talaga ang gumagawa ng istorya at nagsasabi ng katotohanan sa isyung ito ng jai-alai pero jueteng daw!

Kung ating matatandaan, kaya pinatigil ang jai-alai noong 1986 sa administrasyon ni dating Pangulong Corazon Aquino ay dahil maraming alegasyon ng “game fixing” sa naturang sugal.

Hintayin na lang kasi natin ang Loterya ng Bayan! Ang gusto kasi natin lahat makikinabang! Hindi tayo para sa kung ano pa man, kung mapatunayan na tunay at ligal ang jai-alai na jueteng daw, titigil ako ng pagbatikos.

Ngunit habang hindi tayo sigurado at puro bulung-bulungan at paninira lamang ang ebidensya rito, patuloy tayong susulat upang tuluyang mamulat ang mga responsable dito.

Sa mga tinatamaan sa isyung ito, hindi n’yo na kailangang siraan ako at ang pamilya ko. Ako’y anak ng Pangasinan at kami ay kilala ng aking mga kababayan mula sa aking pinag-ugatan.

Patuloy akong nanawagan sa mga opisyal ng aking lalawigan sampu ng ating mga kasamang lingkod-bayan na nakatutok sa isyung ito, ito na ang tamang panahon upang maramdaman ng bayan ang ating sinseridad sa ating pagganap ng tungkulin sa bayan at pagtahak sa tuwid na daan.

Dragon Boat Race introduced in Dagupan

Who is behind the explosions of “bombs” in Dagupan?

by Mario Mata

What I liked about a certain veteran media man in Pangasinan was he could remember my booze powered analysis.

“Your prognosis on the number games among the members of the Sanggunian Panglungsod (City Council) of how they could override the veto of Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim was correct. It was collaborated by a similar case in Tanauan, Batangas,”

“Thank you sir,” I told him.

That Batangas case, listed as Opinion No. 82, Series 2007 of the Department of Interior & Local Government, was sent to my e-mail too by my yet un-meet “cousin”-- the prolific Dagupan City Administrator Vlad Mata.

 I told the media man earlier-- when we were drinking Kuatro Kantos with his pals near the river bank of Brgy. Pantal-- that those line items could be vetoed by Mayor Lim if he felt those were Ultra Vires to the city as they prejudiced his constituents. I said the SP of Dagupan needs to over –turn Lim’s veto with two-third (2/3) votes.

Two-third votes should be nine members out of the 13.

This includes the vice mayor as provided by Section 457 of the Local Government Code (R.A 7160).

 “But Vice Mayor Belen could not vote in that 2/3. The law gives her the power to vote by breaking a tie only,” I told the media guy who said he is a fan of non-pareil American documentary writer Bob Woodward.

Because it took however an outward and progressive looking and conscience-stricken City Councilor Jess Canto for his colleagues to frustrate Lim, we were deprived to witness how Fernandez treat the line items’ vetoes if Canto did not go for a business trip.

Without the 2/3 votes, without the official statement from the office of the president or the court on how much budget the mayor taps on those vetoed line items, the Vice Mayor wrote at the regional office of the Department of Budget & Management in La Union, it is a presumption that Lim wins the budgetary battle.

“Even though the SP thumbs down his program, Lim can just veto it. Then the bill is back to the August Body that is now handicapped to provide a 2/3 votes because the vice mayor can not vote, “I told the salt and peppered hair scribe.

***

Three children, whose averaged aged is three years old, from the squatter area of Brgy. Tapuac in Dagupan City were searching ng for bangus (milkfish) at a fishpond near the De Venecia Highway when they saw a box of mineral water near a camachile tree.

Two of them took a peek of what was inside the cartoon.

One of them threw an empty bottle from the cartoon for the third boy that was five yards away from them. Then the two boys pulled out a heavy stuff wrapped by a sack and wires.

Boom!

The two boys were knocked out.

They were seriously struck by shards of broken bottles used as sharp nails on their faces and upper torsos. The other boy’s tee was burn.

One of them would become blind as a sharp shard hit seriously his eye.

The third boy survived too as three sharp shards that were buried in the left side of his head were not deep to snatch out his life.

When they were brought at the Cuison Medical Clinic in the same village by frantic people at the blast site (some of them wore briefs only), the owner of the clinic was indifferent. Their hysterical parents saw them confined with bloods at a nearby bench unattended.

“Because we were poor, the owner did not treat us. But it was wrong!,” the sorry father lamented.

They were eventually brought at the Regional Medical Centre in Dagupan City.

My nagging questions:

1)      Was the explosion a part of another explosion in Brgy.Bonuan where an old man was hit by three real sharp nails on the head and face?

2)      Was the explosion an evil scheme by the political enemy of Mayor Lim to discourage people inside and outside Dagupan to attend the zero-budget City Council-initiated Bangus Festival being celebrated as of this moment?

3)      Was the crude bomb in Tapuac deterrence made by the owner of the fishpond to thieves who lived in the nearby squatter area not to steal his milkfish?

Dagupan City Chief of Police Romeo Caramat should initiate an investigation on this observation.

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/ or  contact me at mata_mario@yahoo.com.ph)

Where is your 2/3 votes Vice Mayor Belen?!

Votes-strapped Dagupan  City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez being interviewed by her "favorite" broadcaster Joseph Bacani

Does the tyranny of the majority of the members of the Sanggunian Panlungsod (City Council) hit a snag?

Last April 4 they should have over rode the selected vetoes of the line items sent to them by  Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim, but por dios por santo, one of the members of the 2/3 or eight voters, Councilor  Jess Canto, was absent as he was on a purported  business trip.

Thus they satisfied themselves to get the opinion of the head of the Department of Budget & Management in San Fernando, La Union to resolve how the city government operates its budget.

(By the way, the opinion informally told to the dads by Regional DBM head Atty. Janette Abuel is disputable. I’ll deal on that in my future column)

***

Why they settle for the DBM’s opinion and not call a special session  to over ride the veto the following day or the following week where Canto would be present?

 Hmmmm, I smell sometin’. I see some crackin’.

***

Would it be an enacted 2011 budget of P487 million or would it be the bigger re-enacted budget of 2010 vis-à-vis those line items the mayor vetoed?

I could only speculate the following on the absence of Councilor Canto?

Firstly, he probably has seen the lights from the adverse political partisanships of his vice mayor and apathetic peers who gradually bury the interest of the entire Dagupenos back to the “Stone Age”.

Anak na Lasi, nengneng yu amay Urdaneta City pata-as ng pata-as iyung city budget nila every year. Dyad Dagupan la-os! Dahil paurong ng paurong tayo!;

Secondly, Canto could probably not bear the manifest and patent partiality of the Vice Mayor and the” Seven Tyrants”. Imagine, they approved P3 million budgets for the last year’s Bangus Festival headed by Vice Mayor Fernandez, but gave a zero budget for this year’s Bangus Festival headed by the allies of the Mayor?

This is only one of the many examples of the double standards they practiced. Bad taste in the mouth! Canto probably knows that Dagupenos know the malicious agenda foisted by the SP to them;

Thirdly, Canto has been offered probably with some multi-million of pesos of legal projects at his behest (read: Identify them as they boiled to his credits). These could be brownie points for his re-election or his plan to run for the vice mayoralty in 2013;

Fourthly, he was just conscience- stricken about the shenanigans his colleague have been doing since the Lim Administration came into power;

Fifthly, he just wanna be a political saint among the marginalized Dagupenos whose fate are condemned to suffer in the political hell until he “deserted” his colleagues.

God Bless Councilor non-pareil Canto! You’re the greatest gift of God to Dagupan. Halleluiah, baby!

(You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/ or  contact me at mata_mario@yahoo.com.ph)

DAGUPEÑOS ARE FATHERS OF BANGUS FESTIVAL - BSL

DAGUPAN CITY – Mayor Benjamin S. Lim has humbly corrected the people’s impression that he is the “Father of Bangus Festival” and explained that it is not him, but rather the people of Dagupan.

                Lim pointed out that 10 years ago he convened all the stakeholders of the city during his first term as city mayor for a visioning exercise and it was they who decided to stage a festivity that is uniquely Dagupan. “It was then that Bangus Festival came about,” he said.

                To this date, Bangus Festival continues to captivate people from all over the country and draw thousands and thousands of visitors yearly in its celebration like the Panagbenga of Baguio City, the Sinulog of Cebu, Maskara of Bacolod, and Dinagyang of Ilo-ilo.

                “We are launching another project this year, which will surely hold the interest of our tourists to come to Dagupan and see for themselves the beauty and the serenity of our rivers by riding the first river cruise in Northern Luzon,” said Lim.

                “This is what makes our celebration this year different including the fact that the chairmen of this year’s festivity comes from the private sector in the persons of Beep-Beep Tan and Alex Siapno. We are also bringing back the ‘Kalutan ed Dalan’ to its birthplace, the whole stretch of A.B. Fernandez Avenue where most economic activity of the city is being held and not in just one mall,” he said.

                Lim lamented, however, that at present the Bangus Processing Plant in Bonuan Binloc has not been operating six months after its inauguration in October.

                “Sinasabi natin na ang Dagupan ay bangus capital of the world, pero hanggang doon na lang ba? Hindi po. Kinakailangan na ang ating bangus ay makilala sa boung mundo. Ang gusto nating mangyari noong mga nakaraang taon ay magkaroon tayo ng isang processing plant. Nagkaroon na tayo pero after six months of operation ay hindi pa rin po ito nag-proprocess ng bangus. Hiniling po natin na ibigay ito sa mga mamamayan ngunit sinabi ng nakaraang Sangguniang Panglunsod na hindi natin ito kayang patakbuhin,” he said.

                “Nais ko pong ipaalamam sa inyo na itong bangus festival ay hindi lang po isang gimik. Ito po ay isang proyekto na ang ultimo nito ay magkaroon tayo ng mas maraming hanap-buhay para sa ating mga kababayan. Sinasabi ko ito para malaman niyo ang katotohanan,” he sadly said.

                The festival formally opened with the celebration of a Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist officiated by Msgr. Renato P. Mayugba with Lim; Manang Celia C. Lim; city councilors Brian C. Lim, Red Erfe Mejia, Guillermo P. Vallejos, and Jesus Canto; Maximo Alexis M. Tan; Alexander Romulo G. Siapno; Rose Teng-Mejia; Nora G. Siapno, Rebecca Sanchez; the department heads; and Miss Dagupan 2010 Joanna Marie Solomon joining the mass-goers.

                In his sermon, Mayugba encouraged Lim to go on with his good plans for the city and not to be mindful of those who are trying to pull his leadership down.

                Lim reiterated Msgr. Mayugba’s message to those who were trying to pin him down and have this to say, “It reminds me of the bishop’s sermon this morning that kung maganda ang iyong intensiyon, huwag kang mag-alala. Gawin mo lang ang nararapat at tutulungan ka ng Diyos kung tutulungan mo ang iyong sarili.”

                “Kaya’t bubuksan natin ang bangus fest ngayun hindi para sa kasikatan ng mga opisyal na nandirito ngayun  kundi para sa pakinabang ng mga tao sa dagupan,” he stressed. (CIO – Joseph C. Bacani)

Tax delinquent Politician

A mayor in Central Pangasinan would not allow an ex-mayor in Eastern Pangasinan to mess with the valuation of the Real Property Tax the latter owed the town the former heads.

This mayor deplored in the past about the delinquencies of this former mayor who did not pay the taxes for several years of his huge tracts of land in the former town.

Before the March 31, 2011 deadline arrives for the payment of RPT, the former mayor beats the deadline to avoid the hefty penalties and surcharges the new valuation bring from the province that run up to 300% in new hikes.

“He tried to convince me that I arbitrarily reduce his past arrears and penalties by up to 60%,”the smarting mayor was overheard to say before us Hao-shiao media men of Pangasinan.

He did not heed the immoral request.

This former mayor used to slap one of the members of the Taliban Press.

(What happened to that case now Joe, and Ed?)

The mayor of this Central Pangasinan town said that his marginalized constituents religiously pay their RPT while this outsider has been delinquent since time immemorial.

He said that rich taxpayers are the number one violators of payment of their taxes in his town.

***

Some nights ago, I saw Professor Winnie MOnsod on her program “Bawal ang Pasaway” exhorting her students at the University of the Philippines to stay and work in the country instead of going abroad for greener pasture.

For me that’s okay for government scholars and the crème de la crème of public universities.

Government should pass a law that government scholars not only in the University of the Philippines but in other state colleges should sign a contract before they are accepted.

The contract stipulates that after they graduate they work for a couple of years in the country as their mode of payment to their free education.

This is being done at the Philippine Military Academy when its graduate has contract to serve for 15 year from plebe hood up to the time he is allowed to get out to, say, join the ranks of pilots of Philippine Airlines or Cebu Pacific that give them triple or more pay than what they received in the armed forces.

Monsod should not assail a Filipino who after graduation scampers to jobs abroad.

As long as jobs and pay are scarce and low in our country, our young’s would be tempted to go abroad.

***

My only dismay, however, in life is so unfair.

Before one graduates in high school up to the early 1990s, a Marcosian  law called National College Entrance Examination (NCEE)  required a senior secondary student to pass it otherwise he would not get a four-year course.

That law (which for me should be re-enacted by Congress) separate the superior to the nincompoop.

Those who passed it take the four year course in college. Those who did not take the two year maritime course offered by colleges like PAMA.

As a result, those nincompoops owned now three cars and two houses (because they go abroad), while those of us who felt that we were superior intellectually could hardly meet both ends.

((You can read my previous columns at http://dagupenosnews.blogspot.com/ or  contact me at mata_mario@yahoo.com.ph)