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/)

Giginhawa na ba ang mahirap?

PROLIFIC CITY ADMINISTRATOR: 2nd From Left is prolific Dagupan City Administrator Vlad Mata. He is not related with this blog's firebrand take-no-prisoner columnist Mario Mata. Extreme left is City Councilor Brian Lim and Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim (2nd from Right). (Text by Mario Mata)

 

 

 

Ikulong si Gloria! Ilibing si Marcos!…giginhawa na ba  ang mahirap?

 BOK NANI BRAGANZA, ang pagpapalit ng president ng Pilipinas ay tungalian ng naghaharing uri at ni minsan ay hindi ito nagresulta sa pag angat ng buhay ng masang Pilipino.

 Ang akakala nating mga progresibong puwersa kuno ay ginagamit ang kanilang talino at lakas sa pakikipagsabayan sa mga isyu ng mga nag-aagawang elitistang puwersa para sa karapatang maghari sa Bayang Pilipinas.

 Ngayon, ang inaatupag naman ng mga progresibong puwersa kuno ay ang isyu ng pagpapakulong kay Gloria at ang isyu ng pagpapalibing kay Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani.

 Mukhang naliligaw ata ng landas ang mga dati nating kasama. Dakilang Araw na naman ng Paggawa at hindi pa rin nila naisasagawa ang tunay na pagsulong sa interes ng inaaping uri.

 IKULONG SI GLORIA! Iyan ang panibagong aksyon ng isang pangkat ng naghaharing uri kasama ang ilang nagpapangap na pogresibong puwersa.

 Sa isyu ng pagpapakulong kay Pangulong Erap, nakisawsaw ang karamihan sa umanoy progrsibong puwersa at nakialam sa pagpapakulong kay Erap.

 Naisagawa ito nang walang dugong dumanak.

 Nagbunyi sila sa pagkakaluklok kay Gloria bilang Pangulo.

 Pero nasaan na sila ngayon?

 Sila na ang nagkukumahog na magfile ng kasong plunder laban kay Gloria at gusto nilang makulong ang iniluklok nilang si Pangulong Gloria.

 Ang tanong ngayon? Sa sunod sunod na plunder cases laban kay dating Presidente Gloria (PGlo),  ano naman kaya ang ikakagulat ni PNoy sa gagawing hakbang ni PGlo?

                                         

Ang huling balita ko ay nasa abroad si PGlo dahil naka-recess ang Congress.

 Sana huwag magulat si PNoy kung mababalitaan niya na hindi na babalik si PGlo at maghanap na lang political asylum sa ibang bansa dahil ang kanyang rason ay biktima siya ng political persecution ni Pnoy.

 Babalik pa ba si PGlo sa Pilipinas?

 ILIBING NA SI MARCOS. Sa isyung ito dapat ang manaig ay kung ano ang batayan kung sino ang dapat mailibing sa Libingan ng mga Bayani sa Makati ayon sa itinakda ng mga nagtayo ng Libingan ng mga Bayani.

 DAGUPAN CITY ADMINISTRATOR VLAD MATA, para sa akin dapat mailibing na si Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani dahil qualified siya bilang dating Presidente.

 Ang libingan ng mga Bayani ay itinalaga para sa mga sumusunod ayon sa  mga regulasyon na pinirmahan nina AFP Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos at President Corazon Aquino.

 AFP Regulations G 161-373: “Allocation of Cemetery Plots at the LNMB”, which was issued on April 9, 1986 by GHQ under then AFP Chief of Staff General Fidel V. Ramos and then President Corazon C. Aquino, as amended by AFP Regulations G 161-375 on September 11, 2000, is the set of regulations that govern the interment at the LNMB.  

 Pursuant to the above cited AFP Regulations, the ten  categories of deceased persons entitled to be buried at the LNMB are:

 1. Medal of Valor awardees

 2. Presidents or Commanders-in-Chiefs, AFP

 3. Secretaries of National defense

 4. Chief of Staff, AFP

 5. General/flag officers of the AFP

 6. Active and retired military personnel of the AFP to include active draftees, trainees, reservists and Cafgu active Auxiliary (CAA) who died in the line of duty, combat operations or combat related activities

 7. Former AFP members who laterally entered/joined the PNP and the PCG

 8. Veterans of the Philippine revolution of 1890, WWI, WWII, and recognized guerillas

 9. Government dignitaries, statesmen, national artists and other deceased persons whose interment or reinterment has been approved by the Commander-in-Chief, Congress, or the Secretary of National Defense.

 10. Former Presidents, Secretaries of National Defense, widows of former Presidents, Secretaries of National Defense, and Chief of Staff are authorized to be interred at the LNMB.

Maliwanag na si Marcos ay naging Presidente ng Pilipinas at ito ang isang batayan kung bakit puede siyang ilibing  doon.

 Bahala na kayong makipagdebate kung siya ay bayani o hindi.

 Kayong mga nasa kaliwa, balak niyo din bang mailibing sa libingan ng mga bayani kapag kayo ay namatay?

 Pasensiya na, hindi kayo qualified.

 Kayong mga nasa Kaliwa, ang Libingan ng mga Bayani ay isyu ng naghaharing uri. Huwag na kayong makialam.

 Tutal may mga congressman naman na kayo sa House of Representatives, gumawa din kayo ng batas para may libingan din kayo? Anong kabayahihan na ba ang nagawa niyo?

 Ang pagtutol sa pagpapalibing kay Marcos ay isang pakikiisa sa kabilang paksiyon ng burgesya na tutol kay Marcos.

 Ang pagsawsaw sa usapin ng libing ni Marcos ay walang kinalaman sa pagsulong ng makauring interes.

 Administrator Vlad Mata, paano mo ba ginagawa ang trabaho mo in terms of relating to the legislative branch sa Dagupan? Mahirap ba, naiipit ka rin ba sa nag-uumpugang bato?

 Administrator Vlad, tapos na ang isyu ng pagkuha sa poder, ituloy mo lang ang pagtaguyod sa mga bagay na ikabubuti ng Dagupan. Doin’ good after 1 year ha!

 PNOY, SHOULD  NOT HAVE ACCEPTED RESIGNATION! Dapat hindi tinanggap ni Pnoy ang resignation ni Ombudsgirl Merci Gutierrez.

 Hindi niya ngayon mapapatunayan ang kanilang pinagpaguran, pinag-gastusan at pinag-isipan kung anong mga kaso ang isasampa para ma-impeach si Ombudsgirl Merci.

 Naghanda ang impeachment prosecutors ng mga bala para sa isang laban na ngayon ay hindi na matutuloy.

 Hindi rin dapat sinabi ni PNoy na siya ay nabigla sa desisyon ni Ombudsgirl Merci dahil ang resignation ay isa sa mga fallback ng akusadong Merci.

 Magaling sa taktika si Merci.

 Naiwan nabigla at nakatunganga ngayon ang impeachment team dahil wala silang napatunayan sa impeachment court.

PANGASINAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. Ang konsepto ni Bok Nani ay ang pagpapatayo ng Pangasinan International Airport sa Alaminos City ay hindi lang para sa Alaminos City o sa Distirct One ng Pangasinan.

Ang Pangasinan International Airport ay para sa buong Pangasinan.

 Katulad ng Gali-langoy na project ng Alaminos City, ito ay naghihikayat ng eco-adventure para sa mga turista na pumunta hindi lang sa Alaminos ngunit para sa mga pasyalansa Pangasinan.

 BOK NANI, may nakita na ako na baller band na nakasulat ay PangAsiNani.2013! Hehehe, alam kong walang kang kinalaman dito.

Benjie hits a gold mine on his river cruise projects!- Administrator Vallo

Calasiao Administrator Vivencio L. Vallo was all praised to Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim’s three spruced-up floating platforms.

“Those river cruisers at Loboc in Bohol would be shamed compared to what you got in Dagupan (City),” he emphatically told me.

He said local and international tourists would be breathless seeing the majestic’s mangroves and bird nest along the pristine river banks that hold the tranquil breathtaking clean Dawel-Watak river.

“Benjie hits a gold mine on his river cruise projects!”

The comparative advantage of Dagupan to Bohol he said is the delectable salacious Bonuan Bangus the city can offer at those restaurants on top of two large outrigger boats which are joined together.

“Tourists can be treated to fish pens how milkfish and others aquatic resources are harvested, “ he explained.

City Administrator Vlad Mata told me recently that a private consortium mulls to put a zip line to complement Benjie’s fancies.

"It’s a new product, and if pushed through, will be a very profitable enterprise," Region I Tourism Director Martin Valera quipped recently. "You can come up with noble approaches. Puwede ninyong i-timing sa gabi, sunset cruise, morning cruise for bird watching – ang daming possibilities.”

***

Mata also told me that the mammoth crowd that joined the recent Gilon-Gilon (Street Dance) reached up to 450 thousands.

He said similar number of people joined the famous “Kalutan ed Dalan” in April 31, 2011 where ten bands entertained the wide-eyed spectators.

***

Buzzes I received lately:

One, there was a rumour lately among powerful clichés in Manila that former President Gloria Arroyo, hubby Mike, and congressman- son Mikey have left the Philippines for Dominican Republic due to the resignation of ally Ombusman Merceditas Gutierrez.

This buzzed could not be far-fetched.

 Without Guitierrez, the second line of defence of Gloria to avoid that dread“ kasalukuyang naghihimas ng malamig na bakal ng kulungan” would be the justices in the Supreme Court who are indebted to her  when she appointed them.

But these magistrates would abandon her, too, by rejecting an appeal of his lawyer to the resolution of probable cause of the Ombudsman for the Sandiganbayan to lock her in jail without bail in a long tedious protracted legal battle.

These justices would play prudence by avoiding public uproar. Otherwise, the members of the House of Representatives who are aligned with President Benigno Aquino III would launch another Article of Impeachment against them.

Despite the political alignments of our senators, most of them would vote for the impeachment of these justices when the Article concludes its deliberation in that August Body.

***

Insider at the122-strong League of Cities of Philippines told me that its members were furious.

One, the high court flipped flopped for the 3^rd time. They said that the court has already resolved with finality that the 16 towns could not be a city because their bid was unconstitutional as it anchored on class legislation for one.

Two, the veracity of the report that the reason for the flipped-flopped was each of the city did not give P5 Million to some people up there.

Remember that the inclusion of the 16 municipalities would deprive cities like Alaminos, Dagupan, and Makati by P13 Million, P18 Million, and P100 million, respectively.

Three, the April 12, 2011 rejection of the Court of the Motion for Reconsideration (MR) of the LCP to reverse the favourable decision for those towns made some mayors livid. Some of them mull to file through their congressmen an Article of Impeachment against the justices.

Would the Court favour the second MR of the LCP because of these threats?

Or would the court rejects it anew otherwise it faces an impeachment bid against the members of the 16 towns that were rejoicing nowadays because they would be earning four-folds of the Internal Revenue Allotment they used to receive with-out lifting an effort?

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