Punchline
Two shameful claims
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
IN our last issue, we run as our headline a news story on what we said appears to be a sneak return of illegal fish pens in Dagupan City’s rivers.
In the spirit of fairness, we chose as our headline story in this issue, City Agriculture officer Emma Molina’s assertion that only fish cages are allowed in the city’s rivers to culture high-value fish, and her denial about existence of fish pens.
I noted, however, that even as she denied the return of illegal fish pens, in the same vein, she confirmed The PUNCH report (and published photo of an illegal fish pen) that the two illegal fish pens we reported were, indeed, operating when she accompanied Mayor Belen Fernandez to inspect the illegal fish pen we reported. Duh?
How could she claim there were none and then admit there were two whose owners she claimed she had ordered to dismantle by the end of the month.
To the credit of Mayor Belen Fernandez, she immediately inspected the area that we reported and saw for herself that our picture and news item did not lie. What I thought was peculiar was why Mayor Belen had to find out about it herself and through a news report. So would have Mayor Belen known the truth if we had not published the story and the picture? Reading her Ms, Molina’s lame alibi makes me believe Mayor Belen was in the dark about her priority project.
If Ms. Molina honestly did not know about the presence of the two illegal fish pens in the city’s rivers today, then she was not doing her job. If, on the other hand, she knew but kept the information about the presence of the illegal fish pens, then she has a lot of explaining to do.
But either way, she needlessly embarrassed Mayor Belen who trusted her as the agriculture officer who would do all to protect the city’s river system knowing that a clean river system is one of her priorities!
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MORE DAMNING EVIDENCE. Moving on, I have another news for Ms. Molina.
By the time she reads our item, she would already know that I forwarded to Mayor Belen last Friday a bunch of pictures emailed to me by the Fishpond Owners, Operators, Fisherfolk Association of Dagupan Inc. that belie her claim that there are no more illegal fish pens operating besides what she and Mayor Belen earlier confirmed per our report.
Among the pictures submitted showed two pen caretakers feeding the bangus inside the illegal fish pens with commercial feed and bangus frantically helping themselves to the processed feed. The pictures were taken last Thursday.
To the credit again of Mayor Belen again, she readily agreed to join the fishpond operators group in another inspection trip, this time to be led by the group, not by Ms. Molina. The group, in fact, also asked that Ms. Molina join the inspection trip so finger-pointing and self-serving statements to the mayor between them and Ms. Molina will already be settled once and for all.
I sure hope that trip will materialize soon so Mayor Belen can be guided how to best proceed protecting the city’s river system.
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NO JUETENG? Here is second worrisome claim.
This time it is the claim of Pangasinan Provincial Police Office that the province is jueteng-free! I certainly hope that P/ Supt. Ferdinand De Asis said that with a tongue in cheek because without it, that statement would make him and his office the laughing stock among his peers in the province, and the regular bettors of jueteng in the province.
Why? Because nothing can be further from the truth!
His claim that the “jai-alai” operations of Meridian Gaming Corporation is legitimate and therefore, its numbers game is legit, makes him look like a sad sack in the face of the series of charges made by other police stations in the country that the jai-alai off-fronton stations are nothing but a front for jueteng!
The city and town police chiefs are well aware that jueteng in most places hold at least 2 “draws” daily! All the barbers tell me that! And I’ve seen cabos go in and out of markets, armed with their familiar paper tallies. They don’t even care about wearing the prescribed Meridian uniforms to look legit.
I recall that in some provinces, police stations even filed formal complaints before the courts alleging that the supposed gambling franchise that Meridian invokes cannot be applied outside of Cagayan province, the home base of the jai-alai off fronton stations. Still some police stations went on to arrest a number of “jai-alai” bet collectors for taking bets for jueteng draws.
Did Mr. De Asis really think he can make the preposterous claim with a straight face and get away with it?
I recall a series of column items in “Deretsahan” written by our irrepressible columnist Bebot Villar, (chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board to you) denouncing many mayors in Pangasinan for issuing business permits to Meridian. He knew too well what Meridian was operating and did not mince words to decry the “official business” stance of the mayors towards its operations in Pangasinan.
So is it possible Mr. De Asis can’t tell what and jueteng operates? If he doesn’t, then he should leave his post as information officer, and zip his mouth for good. In that thoughtless claim, he did the PPPO a great disservice for making it appear that its officers cannot tell if jueteng is operated right under their very noses.
Had he been more candid and said PPPO is having a problem confronting jueteng because the mayors have allowed Meridian to operate in their towns, he would have won sympathies even from his own peers. Tsk-tsk.
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NOT BOTCHED BUT SUCCESSFUL. Allow me to weigh in again on the Mamasapano tragedy that has divided this country.
As the blame game continues, it’s time government leaders and media stop referring to the January 25 SAF mission as a “botched” or failed mission because it was not!
It was a successful mission! The SAF commandos succeeded in eliminating Marwan, the prime target.
What was botched and a shameful failure was the rescue attempt, the timely efforts to extract the trapped SAF commandos from the killing field.
What was botched was the presence of PNoy in the welcome honors for the gallant SAF 44 and the wounded.
What was botched was the expected preservation of the chain of command.
What was botched was the opportunity given PNoy to inspire and demonstrate true leadership in the face of a crisis that divided the nation.
What was botched was the shameless attempt of the negotiating panel of the Aquino administration to rush the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Thank God!
The families of the courageous 44 who died fighting to the last man (and the surviving SAF commandos) certainly have nothing to regret about the mission because it was “Mission Accomplished” in a manner that gave true meaning to the moniker TAGALIGTAS”!
“BOTCHED” is a word that can only be associated with men and women who cannot handle the truth!
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