Playing with Fire
BTF gets a 7.5
By Gonzalo Duque
THERE’S a radio commentator who was heard saying that this columnist and Mayor Belen T. Fernandez have a falling out.
Ahhh…. maybe he mistook our column “Farrah Dagupan” for another thing.
Not true. We always base our support for Mayor Belen on her “straight-path” principle to fight corruption, ineptness and personal aggrandizement in public service.
She has in her 3 years done well in specific areas of performance: education, budget balancing, youth and sports development, peace and order (minus noise pollution), disaster preparedness, delivery of safe drinking water to our homes, making our rivers free from pollutants, sustaining a time-honored bangusan, gulayan in schools, etcetera…
On budget balancing, you can ask every City Hall employee how he or she benefitted from her handling the city’s funds.
What’s good with Mayor Belen, which probably can’t be said of some former mayors is wala siyang “anak power.”
You, dear readers, were a witness to a mayor whose family members behaved like local Binays, parang hawak nila ang ciudad.
On the education front, we know that those who see the mayor in action know that she is motivated by the public interest.
* * * *
By the way, Supt. Gloria Torres has been assigned in San Carlos City. She was replaced by OIC Supt. Proserfina Bravo, an import from Ilocos Norte.
We wish to remind some people in the DepEd that there is a policy in public service: if you want to keep your post be guided by the motto, “Don’t Fight City Hall.”
So how do we rate BTF as mayor?
Well, this question is tough. We know for certain that she has stepped on many sensitive toes as every serious leader encounters.
To us, she has scored highly, especially in initiating reforms and good governance.
We give her 7.5 on a scale of 10. Ok na yon, di ba?
Marami tayong nakikita at naririnig in this Peyton Place called Dagupan.
From our vantage point, nagkaroon tayo ng maliit na agam-agam in our desire as chair of the city’s peace and order when we partnered with the Regional LTO thru Director Jojo Guadiz in stopping the irritating noise pollution in our city.
Police Chief Chris Abrahano began well, but the job went pfft… parang ningas cogon. You laugh, it was, indeed, a flop.
Did you know that Mayor Belen was a recipient of an outstanding award as illegal drug nemesis? Ask Sec. Bebot Villar. That makes her a standout in the LGU. You and us know that it’s real tough to go against the menace of the universe. Most, say 99% of our LGUs, are “on the take,” hence the “near impossibility” to stamp out for good this nemesis of life!
This is the main reason we can’t give Mayor Belen higher than 7. Drugs still lurks its ugly head in every corner of our barangays, nay, sitios!
We know why. It’s in the over-all character of our rule – or mis-rule – of law. Our law enforcers are largely behind it. Billions if not trillions of $ make it impossible to lick the menace. Are we faulting the Muslims who have invaded our province? Well, a little part of it because they, some of them anyway, are vulnerable.
Their livelihood is one. But looking behind the ugly façade lurks a sinister fact. It’s due to law enforcers from top to bottom.
Belen, therefore, Colonel Rey Biay, Colonel Chris Abrahano can’t do much. “Nasa itaas and direktib!”
We need a hard-as-granite hand from the Palasyo to lick it.
If we are serious about making life better and ensuring the future of our children, let’s elect a president who is fearless, uncompromising and armed with a track record in punishing the locos.
Sino? Your guess is as good as ours. Yong nagmumungkahi to apply the death penalty to the criminals, to all whose hands are tainted with drugs.
Rody Duterte kuan yo pa?
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