Punchline
Doing a “Ping Lacson,” “Duterte”
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I HATE to rain on the parade of Dagupan City Police chief Christopher Abrahano, who was recently cited for his “Outstanding Police-community Relations” program by the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office.
But unknown to him, there are scalwags in uniform quietly operating in the unit, simply refusing to let old kotong habits die. The favorite “kotong places” of the uniformed misfits are the designated loading and unloading areas in the city’s business district.
The kotong cops demand P20 particularly from minibuses for the privilege to make the designated loading and unloading areas as their “terminals” each time.
Some of the minibus drivers whom assets of The PUNCH talked to conceded that the POSO and CAST elements are strict and dutifully issue violation tickets when they are caught parked in their “terminals.” But the city hall workers get out of the way soon as the “kotong cops” appear for their regular “quota” collection.
Paging Mr. Abrahano. You have recidivists under your command that may likely soon use your name to up the ante. I strongly suggest he does a “Ping Lacson” in the station.
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DO A DUTERTE. We are heartened to learn that the Dagupan City’s Bantay Ilog Task Force is finally performing its mandated task as the watchdog for the protection of the city’s rivers.
I am informed that it regularly finds itself doing a cat-and-mouse chase operation around the city’s rivers with operators of illegal fish pens who easily construct a fish pen in any area in the hope of making the TF team close its eyes for a “negotiable” consideration.
I’m afraid this is largely the result of the lenient policy adopted by the Fernandez administration early on – to be allowed some time to recover investments before demolishing the structures – instead of being charged in court for operating illegally.
The fish pen operators obviously have no regard for the city hall and think everyone in the city agriculture office has a price, from the department head to the lowest member of the task force.
It’s time Mayor Belen throws the book at the unscrupulous businessmen who continue to run around her if she wants them to strictly observe the city’s fisheries ordinance.
A little Duterte style will do her wonders, and more!
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GANITO SA BAYAN BUKAS? VP Binay was in Pangasinan to shore up support that gave him the crucial votes in 2010 when he should have been in the Senate to answer all allegations of massive irregularities amid a paper trial of corruption during his watch as mayor of Makati City.
Ironically, while he dismisses the charges aired against him in the senate as “politika lang yan,” he goes hopping around the country purposely for his 2016 politics.
Then, all his known dummies who kept millions of dirty money for him have all gone into hiding. The persons who brave the senate hearings are clearly those who were no dummies but knew how dealings in Makati went and are busy covering up for the dummies.
These talks of corruption in Makati City had long preceded the Senate hearings. In fact, I would not have believed all the talks of lagayan system inside the Makati City Hall until I came face to face with it way back in the late 80s.
I had wanted to operate a branch for my Manila-based travel agency, Citi-World, in Makati so I went to the city hall to look into the business application requirements.
Before giving me a list, I was ushered into an office, and I was told up front by a city hall official that I have to pay P1 million if I want a permit to operate a small branch office in Makati! I was aghast!
I did not have to pay P1,000 more than what was required to get my travel agency license to operate in Manila; worse, I could not see how a small travel agency operation could possibly earn a million in 5 years! And it was dished out to me in a matter of factly tone: Take-it-or-leave!
The exposes of former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado at the senate hearing merely affirmed what I thought then – that to operate a legitimate business in Makati City under a Binay administration entails corruption in every corner.
I shudder at the thought how Philippines would fare under a Binay administration when he says: Ganito kami sa Makati noon, ganito rin sa bayan bukas! Heaven forbid!
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LOST NBI HONOR. The integrity and professionalism of the National Bureau of Investigation suffered its lowest when it insisted on filing murder charges against Guv Spines, Cong Jess Celeste and publisher Jaime Aquino. This could be gleaned from the resolution written by the panel of prosecution of the Department of Justice under whose office the NBI is attached.
Early on, all the indications of brazen lies were before NBI investigators yet they insisted on finding credence in the sworn statement of a teenager which was later recanted. Why NBI still insisted on the case even after the recantation was even more puzzling. Did the NBI leadership think for a while that it can cajole its “brothers-in-arms” in DOJ to join the cabal in a political conspiracy for some political consideration?
Without even going into the details of the DOJ resolution, the red flags were all over the arguments pointing to outright dismissal of the case. It could not have been more apparent with one fact: Would a teenager incriminate his own father in a crime that he knew was a lie and that could put him behind bars for life? The NBI could have had reason to believe the blackmailed teener if the case was possibly about child harassment, where the father often battered the son as could have easily be borne out by a medical examination. But it was a case of a concocted murder charge. Hello?
Then there were the family members who knew of the close ties between their murdered father-husband and Guv Spines and Cong Jess. They told the NBI investigators that the theory of conspiracy of the two officials to commit murder was ludicrous. Pinoy culture dictates that even the worst of political enemies would consider murder only if it was a question of survival in the worst case. In this case, the mayor, the Guv and the Cong were even good friends!
My only lament about the whole saga of manipulation, intimidation and cover-up was the fact that the mayor’s family has been denied justice over the years all because of the political manipulation of the case that the NBI allowed to happen.
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GIVING BACK. Here is an opportunity for the thousands of graduates of various public high schools in Pangasinan to give back to their roots.
There is a new technology company, Awesome Labs Inc., an experimental research lab with an interdisciplinary team of designers, engineers and scientists that developed the ScoPeek microscope, a microscope that uses smartphones to capture microscopic images.
It’s a laboratory equipment that gives high school students keen on a futuristic science career an edge in their laboratory work, not possible with the obsolete equipment we find in our schools today. It is viewable in a projector and this can also take photos which makes it easy to share both offline and online and as powerful as a light laboratory microscope that costs P8,000 – P12,000.
By joining the Adopt-a-School Program of the DepEd, a unit can be donated to your school for P999 pesos (without the cellphone,) with the cellphone, it’s P 2,999. A volume discount can be availed of depending on the order. (Singing artist Apl.de.Ap donated 60 units lately to Sapang Bato National High School for P899 each).
ScoPeek is only available through the DepEd’s Adopt-A-School program. (Google ScoPeek for more info).
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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