How Vlad Mata sees Dagupan and RP; SSS-Dagupan to be sued?

Dagupan City Councilor Brian Lim

City Administrator Vladimir Mata

Barangay Tapuac ‘s favorite next Brgy. Captain number one council member Sidney Lomboy found himself recently in a bind with operatives of the Civilian Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) who carried a warrant for his arrest.

They said he was charged of non-remittances of the Social Security Service dues for several years in favor of his employees in his two Sidney Bars & Restaurants located in Tapuac Proper and the new De Venecia Highway.

SSS ordered him to pay P68, 810 for the delinquencies and P57, 469 for the corresponding penalties.

But Lomboy said he already long settled those amounts with SSS-Dagupan City branch under Manager Cesar P. Saludo.

He told me and my Taliban media friends that he mulls to sue because of the pain, anxiety, and moral damages Saludo and company’s incompetence have brought him and his family.

He said Saludo’s office did not withdraw its Complaint-Affidavit for the non-remittance case (a criminal special law that confused even the CIDG) against Lomboy  at the City Prosecutor’s Office in Dagupan.

As a result the probable cause charged of the fixcal, er , fiscal was corroborated by the judge thus the well-televised ‘invitation cum arrest” of Lomboy at the CIDG’s office in the city.

His supporters suspected that some political rivals for the village chieftain have been behind the tipping of GMA-7 to   put him in bad lights. 
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Look who wrote your columnist a letter? It was City Councilor Brian Lim and his reaction to my last week's column "Who wins? Gonz’s “ Solutio Indebiti”, Brian’s “Estoppel “ that saw print on my blog, excerpts:

"To clarify my position regarding the issue, I stated during the session that the claimants may be estopped from claiming that they are exempt from paying their business taxes. but of course, this is for a court of law to decide. Now, given that there is a case filed by UL (University of Luzon) regarding this issue, I believe it is a matter of inter-departmental courtesy (being a co-equal branch of government, and the chief arbiter of the proper interpretation and application of all laws) to give the court ample time and leeway to decide the case. The issue is still sub judice. I appeal therefore that all sides refrain from commenting on the issue as a show of proper respect to the judicial branch of our government."

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Aside from the 29 pages colorful booklets that showcased the economic-social-political landscapes of Dagupan City given to me by prolific Administrator Vlad Mata  (who brained child the book), he asked me and media friends to see how the Benjie S. Lim Administration tackles the various challenges the Bangus City faces in the Local Development Council meeting recently at Pinkies Restaurant.

Guest speaker was a passionate government USec Elmer Mercado who told kapitanes, city and village officials that they should have a plan to mitigate the perennial flooding.

“Mahirap ng mag-plano pag andiyan na ang program. Dapat 10 years ago pa ang implementation ng plano,” he emphasized.

He discussed there in the vernacular for everybody to understand (like the mostly English handicapped kapitanes and my media hao-shiao friends) the nuances of squatters. He said it should be the leg-worked of the Department of Environmental & National Resources to relocate them since they settled at national government’s properties, but instead it is the LGU like Dagupan that faces the headache where to relocate and how much money to shell-out for their relocation.

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He told us that the presence of Robinson Mall in Calasiao is welcome news for the city government on the predicaments of the illegal settlers in Dagupan.

Progress in neighboring Calasiao means exodus of the squatters to that town who will hail from Dagupan and other LGUs in Pangasinan.

He said Dagupan should not be surprised why squatters descended (I used this word ‘descended” because the Under Sex, er, Under Sec told everybody there that the city is located at the bottom of the topography in Pangasinan and Benguet thus the flood).

“It is because of the bullish economy of Dagupan and the economic opportunities she offers to them,” he said in Pilipino which I painfully translated to Shakespearean English in this column because my publisher is a Chinese-American.

“Ikaw Mario puedi lang sulat dito diario ko English o Fukien Chinese lang,” I was reprimanded in a halting Tagalog by my publisher before who has a phobia for libel suit.

“Wag mo gaya iyong Mortz Ortigoza na may sampu libel suits, mahal piyansa dyes mil bawat isa, di ko kaya”.

“福建省福建省福建省, yes madam,” I retorted in my halting Fuckien, er, Fukien Chinese.

***

In a huddle later, City Administrator Mata lectured me and my Taliban friends how to be an in-depth opinion writer.

He told us that we should read voraciously so we can give intelligent information to the people unlike this paper’s rival Sunday Punch newspaper -- whose opinion-writers are as shallow as the substandard concreting of highways by the Department of Public Works & Highways under the offices of its District Engineers in Dagupan and Pangasinan.

He told us to ponder on his observation.

He said backward Vietnam has eclipsed already the Philippines in snaring Foreign Direct Investment.

“Vietnam came out of 30 years of war in the ’70s. Its $56-million foreign investment in the ’80s was puny, compared to our $2.14 billion. But by the ’90s its $13.38 billion already overtook our $11.88 billion. In the 2000s Vietnam’s $35.29 billion was double our $16.34 billion”.

He said Vietnam’s $35.29 billion overtook even Thailand’s $ 31.46 Billion in 2000s.

He said our sorry Philippines have been left already in the “Kangkongan” by these two countries.

Their secrets, Mata posed, is their government offers 100 percent foreign ownership of industries there.

Mata said we “xenophobic” Pinoys offers a 60-40 equity in favor of Filipino entrepreneurs who lack monies unlike their foreign counterparts.

With Mata’s incisive observation, Dagupanoes could be assured that the “Little Mayor” of Dagupan and his mayor run the city in the right direction.

With Mata’s incisive observation, my media friends could be assured that another round of Mang Inasal or Jollibee Chicken Joy or San Miguel Lights are in the offing.

With Mata’s incisive observation, I am proud that he and I have the same surname “Mata” which means in English as “Chito Samson”, este, “Mouth” pala!

Who wins? Gonz’s “ Solutio Indebiti”, Brian’s “Estoppel “

Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim

By Mario Mata

Since 2001 Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) pays business tax and other fees to the city government of Dagupan City without qualms.

Early this year a columnist posed a title on his column “Tax cheats in Dagupan City?” in reference to owners of educational institutions in the Bangus City.

Later, Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim in his State of the City Address wondered why “University 1“ (a lot of people presumed it was University of Pangasinan)surprisingly paid P2 Million, while Universities 2 and 3 suspiciously paid only P342,000, and P50,000  of their business tax due in 2010.

He said it was suspicious because all the three universities have more or less the same enrolment.

Hell broke loose thereafter as LNU president ran ‘berserk” by taking offense on the tax cheat’s insinuations of the mayor in his SOCA.

Lim denied, however, saying “the cheat thing”. He only said many in the city under-declared their taxes which is a bad practice for the progress of the city.

Gonz said that he found out just this year that the city government committed illegal exaction as there was no ordinance –as enabling law- to back up what the Local Government Code of 1991 mandates Dagupan to collect business taxes to its constituents.

“The city should reimburse my school by P6 million that it illegally collected since 2001” Duque was heard  telling selected media men after the RH-Bill forum graced by Rep. Kimi Cojuangco (   5 th District, Pangasina) at his college the other week.

If Gonz cried “Illegal exaction!”, the mayor’s son and city councillor Brian Lim rebutted him with “Estoppel”.

It means Gonz and owners of private schools are already barred to be reimbursed before the eyes of the law what they paid because they have been paying for decade without even a “squeak” of protestations.

 “So what’s your take on the ‘estoppel” rebuked from Brian Lim?” a media man was heard asking Atty. Duque.

“Solutio Indebiti,” Gonz emphatically replied to the question.

Solutio Indebiti, for the sake of those ignoramuses at the media profession, means a situation that arises when a person through mistake, pays what is not due by him under any civil or natural obligation either because there was never an obligation or because it was already extinguished or because he pays that which is due but not by him or because he pays that which is due but not to the person who receives it.

With Gonz “Illegal Exaction and Solutio Indebeti”, and Brian’s “Estoppel “, who wins?

We could not say for the meantime. These craps are questions that need the meticulous evaluation of the court  of law in the city.

Atty. Gonzalo Duque, President of Lyceum Northwestern
University

Unless Benjie and Gonz including the owners of private schools amicably settled this problem before it goes into a full blown court case in a basketball court or elsewhere.