PLAIN OBSTRUCTIONISTS — We missed another set of fireworks at the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) last June 21 when members of the minority bloc chickened out and refused to debate with the members of the majority bloc over the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. With them absent, methinks they again forfeited the opportunity to discuss the issue that grated on their nerves as they did earlier with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).

Except for their letters, threatening legal suits against all those who participated in the passage of the CLUP, that were ignored by those present, what else can the minority bloc do than perhaps to play politics if only to derail as much the good programs and projects of the city administration.

While they insist that they are not opposed to progress for the city, their refusal to accept that Dagupan should have new spatial areas for further economic growth and development belie that claim.

The minority councilors obviously already abandoned their cause, folding up and refusing to slug it out with their colleagues in a healthy  debate. They chose to become plain dyed-in-the wool obstructionists when they could have raised their cause to a higher plain, advocating better plans if they had any.

God bless Dagupan! — Leonardo Micua

 

AN EYE FOR AN EYE — Everyday is killing day in different parts of the country lately. Common reason is illegal drugs.

The spate of killings sent chilling message to drug pushers. Many are turning over themselves to the police for fear of their lives. They feel that the incoming administration is hell-bent in sending them to their graves, in a bid to spare poor souls who would be their would-be victims.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued an appeal to law enforcers for their seemingly unrelenting shoot-to-kill. CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said bishops are disturbed by the increasing number of reports that suspected drug-peddlers, pushers and others about whom reports of criminal activity have been received, have been shot, supposedly because they resisted arrest.

He said media carried reports of bodies, apparently of homicide or murder victims, showing up on whom placards announcing their supposed crimes are writ large!

I talked to a provincial police director in a province near Metro Manila who is a Pangasinense. This official was recently rewarded by the incoming president for his “good works” in the fight against illegal drugs.

“Tsamba lang yun, Manang,” the officer said humbly, as I insisted he is really good at that, making drug suspects rest in peace. He laughed. About 22 more pushers are in the waiting list, I was told.

But what disturbs me is drug pushers are also armed and dangerous. When I woke up Friday morning, I got sad news about a police officer in Urdaneta who used to be with the intelligence section, who was gunned down in an ambush.

His death is possibly related to the anti-illegal drugs drive by the police in that area, a source said. Of course, we all know how the Urdaneta police score big in illegal drugs.

I hope it’s not “an eye for an eye”. Kakatakot pag ganito.— Tita Roces

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