To VM Brian: Fill in the blanks

By Leonardo Micua

Merry Christmas to one and all!

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READERS, noting the column item of Atty. Gonz in his “Playing with Fire” insinuating or directly telling us that Vice Mayor Brian Lim has no or zero accomplishment in office by leaving items from 1 to 10 blank, now dare Brian to refute Atty. Gonz by enumerating his accomplishments if he has any.

By listing them, he cannot be accused of collecting his salary as second highest official of the city without performing anything that mattered to Dagupeños. They say it is incumbent upon him to fill up the blanks in Gonz’s column, if only to assure the taxpayers of Dagupan that they have no do-thing vice mayor.

The ball is now in his court, the readers say.

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The nightmarish bumper-to-traffic all around the city from morn till almost midnight that the Sangguniang Panlungsod wanted to avoid as early as last year has come.

Yet, the body could have at least eased the situation a little had they succeeded in making Victory Liner and Solid North, whose terminals, along with Fie Star, are near the intersection of Perez Boulevard, a busy intersection, come to terms.

Negotiations for the two rival companies to end their bitter feud already reached the Regional Trial Court and efforts to reconcile the two fizzled during public hearings conducted by the SP’s committee on Transportation.

The feud is about the refusal of Victory Liner to allow Solid North’s buses to exit and enter through a former cemetery road previously owned by the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. This was the road ex-Mayor Benjamin Lim sold to Victory Liner when he was president of the Chamber.

Victory Liner has since barricaded that portion of the road at the back of terminal of Solid North to force the latter to enter and exit from its terminal on Perez Boulevard, obstructing the flow of traffic.

The SP threatened to close the terminals but it remains a threat to this day.

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Last week was sad moment for journalism in Pangasinan. Two veteran media colleagues wrote 30: Rachel Nelmida Sapigao of San Carlos City and Ruben Rivera of Dagupan City and Sison, joined their Creator.  May their souls rest in peace!

Tito Tamayo said Ruben was rushed to the hospital for a still unknown ailment, but on Tuesday, a colleague said Ruben passed away because his body could no longer endure the rigor of a dialysis procedure.

Rachel, 58, who graduated in Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications from the University of the Philippines in 1982 used to write a gossip column “Sleek and Saucy”  in The Courier, a newspaper whose editor was the late Joe Fermill, one time dean of journalism in Pangasinan..

We (Joe Fermill, Jun Velasco and I) persuaded her to write the column where she instantly won instant fame and gained followers. 

When the July 16, 1990 earthquake factored in The Courier’s dissolution, she and I hopped over to The PUNCH, where Rachel continued her gossip column and became society editor.

She later joined then Vice Governor Ranjit Ramos Shahani and when she quit her post, she returned to fulltime duty as wife to Engr. Raul and mother to her two doting sons who were studying in UP.

  She soon became the city information officer of San Carlos where she continued her writing. As CIO of then Mayor Julier Resuello, she fed me with a lot of juicy info.

Suddenly, all that stopped. The texting and the e-mail sending suddenly stopped when she retired.

On the other hand, Ruben was a publisher-editor of the Northern Mirror and a columnist too of the Capitol Post where his elder brother Rod, also writes a column.

I remember Ruben as the longest reigning president of the Pangasinan Press and Radio Club. I was his vice president during his first term when I was still bureau chief of PNA Baguio.

 He yielded the post after Ivy Aviño, Alex Duque, the late Josie Lolarga and I came out with a new constitution of the press club and was ratified by the body.

The last time I saw Ruben was one afternoon, about two weeks ago at the office of Provincial Information Officer Butch Velasco. He was at that time with his wife Carol, his constant companion and guide.

 I had no inkling, whatsoever, he had a very serious health problem and needed dialysis.

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