Punchline
Mayors and cop chiefs are lying
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
HERE’S a piece of news item that should embarrass the province’s mayors and police chiefs who swear to high heavens that the jai-alai off fronton betting stations are not being used as fronts for jueteng.
With a little sleuthing and surveillance by elements from the DILG’S Office for Internal Security who were armed with a strong sense of dedication to duty and a little common sense, they showed that our mayors and police chiefs can no longer deny that they are, in fact, tolerating jueteng in their towns and cities under the cover of jai-alai! Don’t bother asking why.
Read this. Last October 24, DILG’S anti-gambling operatives arrested and filed illegal gambling charges against 10 employees of the Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC) operating in Taytay, Rizal. The police team led by a Chief Inspector Jay Guillermo minced no words when he accused the MVGC employees of being involved in jueteng operations instead of jai-alai online betting games.
How did he and his raiders determine this? Simple.
When they raided the jai-alai off-fronton betting station, the “MVGC employees” were caught 1) tabulating and determining jueteng winning combinations, 2) their computer was shut off, 3) the seized bet papelitos were those used in jueteng, 4) no on-line bettors were present, 5) the bets were collected submitted by kubradors or peddling collectors, not by bettors themselves.
And as they had expected, the MVGC employees, in a vain attempt to ward of the raiders, coolly presented a copy of the a writ of preliminary injunction issued on September 28, 2011 by the Court of Appeals enjoining the National Police and other law enforcement agencies against conducting operations against the MVGC. But no dice. With the evidence they had, the dedicated cops would not be pushed around.
And here’s how common sense worked for Mr. Guillermo. He determined that the bets collected were for numbers exceeding number 11, the only possible numbers in jai-alai! The arrested MVGC employees were caught collecting bet combinations for numbers 1 to 39!
Perhaps, BM Alfie Bince will again be inspired, this time by the performance of Mr. Guillermo and his team, and reiterate his call for an investigation in the provincial board of the dismal performance of the Pangasinan police command in combatting jueteng.
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IGNORANT OR SCHEMING? Again, when it rains it pours for the occupants at the Dagupan City hall.
When the Lim-Mata (mayor-city administrator, respectively) tandem realized that its demand, for the Seafood Processing Plant to submit all documents pertinent to a supposedly required business permit, would no longer be tenable, the duo washed their hands and quickly hid behind the skirt of the One-Stop-Shop unit.
Was it ignorance of the law by the duo or sheer harassment schemed by the duo (to serve their personal business agenda) that led to the costly closure of the city-owned plant for over a month?
If they were ignorant, an apology to the city would have been appropriate but nothing of that sort left their mouths so far. And since I doubt they will ever admit they are ignorant (tan-g-a) on matters of public administration, no apologies to the city will be forthcoming.
This leaves us with the harassment and sabotage angle. Read their denial in this issue. They would sound credible if the reader didn’t know what transpired.
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THE FOILED PLOT. Here’s what I saw how the tandem craftily operated the sabotage.
True, city hall never issued a formal notice to BFAR demanding the presentation of the permit or face closure but for some mysterious reason, BFAR unilaterally decided to order the closure of the plant citing the absence of a business permit. But there obviously was an unofficial communication that identified the possible cause for stoppage because it didn’t seem natural for anyone to simply close shop citing an official deficiency that had no basis. The absence of a formal notice was intended to shield city hall from possible embarrassment in the event the plot is foiled. And it was foiled.
Recall that the BFAR brass was in Dagupan and met with Mr. Lim weeks ago. After their meeting, city hall reported that BFAR will evaluate the plant’s operations to see if the mayor’s proposal to manage the plant is meritorious.
Two weeks later, came the surprise BFAR order directing the closure of the plant without any prior discussion with the local plant manager about the absent business permit. There was even no mention of a formal notice from the city hall in the order as reference for the action taken. In my book, the timing and the circumstances were suspect from the very beginning.
Assuming Mr. Lim had nothing to do with it, as mayor he should have objected vehemently to the unilateral order since it would affect the city-owned plant’s viability and would displace workers. He didn’t, and city hall didn’t even lift a finger to facilitate the process in spite of published reports of adverse consequences of the stoppage.
Sure, the mayor can wash his hands off the mess since there was no official document that would implicate his office. But who would have the motive to point to a missing business permit as the take-off point to sabotage the plant? Who wants to take over the plant? Sadly, by acting unilaterally without cause, the BFAR brass obviously conspired with city hall’s agenda.
After the plant managed to produce documents to prove that it is exempt form coverage of business permit, Mr. Lim now conveniently claims he had nothing to do with the closure but unwittingly admits to the contrary by saying nothing to prod BFAR to immediately resume operations. He simply went on to belittle the losses and the negative impact of the work stoppage.
He and his sidekick continue to insult Dagupeños’ intelligence. (And if the CIO item is accurate, it appears the duo now want to put the plant through another wringer by insisting that the plant cannot operate because it still has no mayor’s permit!).
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LAND GRABBING AT THE BEACH. Then, after the revelations about the scandalous status of the Daongan ed Dawel and the aborted “Kangkungan ed Dawel” (both the brainchild of Mr. Lim) after The PUNCH exposed the “mysterious” circumstances that surrounded the two projects, now come the revelations about a series of land grabbing in Bonuan Binloc on the beachfront by enterprising businessmen. (Similarly, the Kankungan is now the subject of a possible land grabbing case).
In our story this week, the city council and the city engineer discovered the sudden existence of several “resort inns” sitting on public land at the beachfront.
Fortunately for the city, these illegal structures are now the subject of possible demolition, that is if City Engineer Virginia Rosario will not be stopped by the Lim-Mata tandem to protect the suspected land grabbers. Let’s watch how the duo will respond to Engr. Rosario when push finally comes to shove in the area.
But how was it possible that a series of land grabbing can succeed in such prime properties without anyone in city hall knowing about it? In fact, nothing moves past a barangay chairman in his territory particularly if it involves commercial interests because the local government code mandates it. Surely Kapitan Pedro Gonzales reported the illegal activities…or will the city hall deny him? A bigger question is, how, indeed, can the enterprising land grabbers have electricity installed in their units unless they had a clearance from the city hall?
And who signs for the city hall? Aha…when it rains, it pours….
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