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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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/)
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