DEPICTING THE BIRTH OF CHRIST – If Tarlac has its Belenismo, Dagupan City, has its Paseo de Belen with 20 big crèches intricately crafted by city folks from indigenous and recycled materials displayed along de Venecia Highway Extension.

I was there during its opening on Dec. 7. I patiently waited for the guests. I was not a bit bored as I busied myself hopping from one manger to another, interviewing people behind every manger distinctly designed, from the simplest to the grandest. In fact, I went to and fro, from end to end of the manger site at least three times. Some familiar faces in the place even commented, “Ma’am pabalik-balik kayo ah, buti di kayo nagsasawa at napapagod.”

“Of course I won’t, I feel relaxed,” I replied.

The Paseo de Belen is the first-ever done here by gathering altogether in one setting all the barangays’ outputs for belen making contest as they came out with 20 entries, all aglow with colorful Christmas lights, unique designs that showed their ingenuity and artistry.

Look what former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr, a Dagupeño, who will turn 80 on Dec. 26, said when he gave his message during the opening: “In all of my 80 years, I have never seen a Christmas season festival featuring 20 different Bethlehem mangers, so beautiful, so ornate, so gracefully crafted and done with the eyes of the people in the barangays.

I shared his observation. It was my first time to see such beautiful mangers all in one area.

JDV said the beauty of the Nativity scene displays here is something that must be duplicated by other cities, towns and provinces across the country.

Mayor Belen Fernandez said it was the barangay officials and their people that conceptualized the ideas for their respective belen with the help of some artists.

One barangay reportedly tapped the artistic skill of a drug ‘surrenderee.’

She said since she became mayor, it has always been Belen sa Barangay as their way of thanking God’s graces. But this is the first time they gathered the crèches in one area for greater impact and for more enjoyable viewing by the people.

Councilor Dennis Canto, 2016 Hermano Mayor of Dagupan City fiesta, said he is happy they were able to make the people feel the spirit of Christmas through the Paseo de Belen.

I encourage families, especially those with young kids, to go and enjoy the sight this Christmas. It’s worth your time, folks. It’s free and it’s an awesome sight.— Tita Roces

 

POLITICS OF THE MINORITY — City hall employees, particularly those holding job order contracts and emergency workers, no longer need to worry about their wages for work done at the start of the calendar year. The P858-million annual budget was finally passed in a special session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod on Dec. 1.

Last year was problematic for them because the annual budget was passed on the second or third week of the month of January all because some members of the council tarried in approving the measure. In contrast, this year’s budget was enacted exactly one month before the beginning of the new year.

In this year’s annual budget, politics still reared its ugly head as the minority in the council tried every trick in the book to oppose the approval of the budget, but these were parried by the seven-man majority who were united in their stand that the budget must be approved without delay.

Still for some unknown reason, only one councilor from the minority showed up during the special session called by Mayor Belen Fernandez to approve the annual budget.

So, the solo attempt of the minority to have the annual budget referred back to the committee level, failed. His motion failed to get seconded.

Councilor Redford Erfe Mejia, we heard, made the motion because of his personal belief that when the committee on appropriation held committee hearings with department heads on the annual budget were only attended by him and Councilor Jeslito Seen. He tried to cite the absence of quorum each time as his basis.

Councilor Jigs, chair of the appropriations committee, reminded Erfe Mejia to revisit the house rules. It provides that no quorum is needed during committee hearings, whether attended by department heads and even their employees, or the private sector.

He said a committee hearing is different from a committee meeting wherein a quorum is necessary before the body can transact business.

Seen, who holds two master degrees, one in public administration and another in local governance, pointed out the difference between a committee hearing and a committee meeting to Councilor Erfe Mejia.

Also, he only has himself to blame if his motion that was not supported. He reportedly advised his three other colleagues while they were in Candon City attending a meeting of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) not to attend the special session to approve the annual budget anymore, for reasons only known to them.

Erfe Mejia also questioned the propriety of Councilor Netu Tamayo, who acted as presiding officer, voting to adopt the annual budget because he argued that as the presiding officer, he shouldn’t have voted. Tamayo’s retort: he is a member of the city council and assumed the chair only as the acting presiding officer, and therefore, it cannot disenfranchise him from voting on the measure.

He said he is not the vice mayor of Dagupan who as presiding officer can only vote in case of tie in the voting among all the councilors present.

Like Seen, he also wondered if the minority floor leader ever read the house rules of the SP but city hall observers doubted that Erfe-Mejia never knew the rules.

Last year and the previous, Dagupan was among the last local government units in Pangasinan if not in Region 1 to approve its annual budget because of politics as Erfe-Mejia consorted with other councilors to delay the budget if only to force Mayor Belen make concessions in exchange for their support. That never happened.  – Leonardo Micua

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