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/)