Punchline
Cong. Toff de V and the SOGIE bill
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
NOTHING has been heard so far from the House of Representatives but we are told Fourth District Rep. Christopher De Venecia is staunch supporter of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Expression (SOGIE) Equality Bill SOGIE bill.
Mr. De Venecia should understand that we are opposed to it because
- It will make it legal to teach LGBTQIA + in our public schools, make it punishable for Catholic schools by law to quote Bible verses against homosexuality in public?
- It opens the gates to male perverts who dress up as women so they can enter Ladies CR at will and threaten exposure of our wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and nuns.
- Established regulations in military, police, etc., will grant exemptions to them and create divisions that will risk lives of our law enforcers;
- Parental control over our children will be questioned on every turn;
- Anything that crosses the line vs a LGBTQIA+ will be considered a criminal offense that will impose jail term and fines up to P500K!
- A simple case of rejection of an LGBTQIA+ member becomes a SOGIE issue with sanction because it can easily be invoked making the LGBTQIA+ a special class.
- There is no law to protect communities vs abuses and scandals perpetrated by LGBTQIA+ members who insist on breaking established rules, regulations because they are LGBTQIA+ members.
We hope Cong Toff and our other congressmen realize that SOGIE will strongly discriminate against a great majority of their constituents who choose to keep their own lifestyle contrary to preferences of LGBTQIA+.
Only a SOGIE bill that simply acknowledges the preferred lifestyle of LGBTQIA+ without attaching privileges and penalties to the detriment of other lifestyles, can be welcomed.
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CONTRASTS IN LIM’S ADMIN. We are seeing a sharp contrasts in the enforcement of laws and ordinances in Dagupan City under the Lim administration.
The POSO under Rob Erfe-Mejia is doing a yeoman’s job restoring order in the city’s streets. We are seeing more sidewalks being cleared for pedestrians and more enforcers taking control of flow of traffic. After the basics, the city can and should look forward to fresh initiatives from POSO to further help improve access in and around the city.
One area that’s worth looking into is how operations of tricycles should be further regulated. Are the city’s tricycle drivers licensed? Are the units inspected for noise and smoke pollution?
On the other hand, the City Agriculture’s Office has closed its eyes completely to the resurgence of illegal fish pens particularly in the island barangays of Pugaro, Salapingao and Lomboy.
I am in receipt of pictures of rows of illegal fish pens from concerned citizens that have sprouted since the Lim administration took over.
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ACCOUNTABILITY. City Mayor Brian Lim and the city council should take City Agriculturist Emma Molina and Barangay Kapitans Nestor Victorio (Pugaro), Delfin de Guzman (Salapingao) and Arsenio Santillan (Lomboy) for outright neglect of duty and responsibility for refusing to enforce the city ordinance.
The strict enforcement of the ordinance is critical not only to the maintenance of the quality of the city’s river tributaries but to mitigate and minimize the impact of flooding caused by typhoons and high tide in the city’s barangays.
The mayor, the city agriculturist and the barangay kaps are definitely liable to be charged before the Ombudsman for dereliction of duty as public officials.
All it takes is one letter to the Ombudsman by any of the concerned citizens who provided us the information describing the extent of the violation of the city ordinance and the Ombudsman will file the charges upon verification of the complaint.
If that should happen, it should embarrass Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and the members of the of the city council for failing to act on clear violations right under their very noses.
At the rate the DILG is making accountability of public officials a serious concern finally, I hope the axe will fall the city’s accountable but corrupt and inept officials finally that will lead to their suspension and/or outright dismissal.
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CHANGE IN PRIORITIES. The absence of clear leadership in Dagupan is being noted during the heated debates over the continued flooding of Bulacan bangus in the city’s fish market.
What is the vision of Mayor Brian for Dagupan bangus? What seems to be apparent is that he does not share the commitment of the former Mayor Benjie Lim to protect the Dagupan bangus brand. Under Mayor BSL, the quibbling heard on the first hearing would have been more than enough for him. A clear direction would have been established right there.
Is that about a generational change in outlook about what’s important and what’s not? Could the future establishment of a slaughterhouse more important now than the future of the Dagupan bangus?
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SOLAR POWER PAYS. The news about the plan of Decorp to establish a solar energy plant in Sta. Barbara town is a welcome development. This should make more residents aware of the advantages of solar power, clear power for the next generation.
What most are not aware of is that installing a solar panel in one’s residence provides a lot of benefits, particularly low costs of power.
This is what is being experienced by our friend Florencio Fernandez of Sta. Barbara. Since he installed a solar panel, his usual P3,000 monthly electric bill when he’s in the country is ZERO, and still gets P2k credit from Decorp for the excess power provided by his installed solar panel and redistributed by Decorp.
Solar energy is way to the future. Flor can show you the evidence and how it works. He’s willing to share his experience. (09491489358). I couldn’t believe it until I saw his electric bills.
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