Chasing the squatters

By Al S. Mendoza

YOU are poor, Mayor Al doesn’t care.

You are rich, Mayor Al doesn’t care.

Poor or rich, the law doesn’t care.

The poor is usually without power, the law doesn’t care.

The rich is usually with power, the law doesn’t care.

Squatters poor or rich, the law doesn’t care.

The law is the law is the law – and Mayor Al follows the law.

From here on, all squatters will be chased to the ends of the earth.

That vow came from no less than Mayor Al, the city mayor with a voice as soft as a cotton but with a resolve as hard as a rock.

“We will apply the full force of the law to everybody,” said Mayor Al. “The law doesn’t say which squatters would be punished. It’s always there to be applied to everybody, whether rich or poor.”

Some really prominent personalities have been fingered as alleged squatters in the city.

The PUNCH reported they include Regional Trial Court Judge Robert Rudio of Branch 40 in Dagupan City, Calasiao town Mayor Roy Macanlalay, lawyer Juan Siapno Jr. and businessman Mario Sandoval, the owner of the famous Goring’s Restaurant on Arellano St.

If only for her gutsy stand, I salute City Engineer Virginia Rosario.

Rosario it was who filed the criminal complaint against the four before the City Prosecutors Office early this month on behalf of the city government.

Rosario is certainly up against heavyweights. You just can’t pin down people with ranks in high places.

A judge as a squatter?

Hard to imagine, if not believe.

It’s like saying Ate Glue’s Justice Secretary isn’t a lawyer.

A town mayor as a squatter?

It’s like saying Kobe Bryant isn’t really a Laker but a Celtic.

In law, if you accuse, you should produce the burden of proof in a bid to collar the accused.

But I believe Rosario didn’t file the cases if she wasn’t ready.

For, she must not only be ready, she should really be armed to the teeth.

I believe the whole legal machinery of the city is behind Rosario. Otherwise, Rosario might just be firing blanks in the end.

One does not just trade verbal jabs with a man of the law – much more with a judge. You are surely up against Mt. Everest.

And how about the mayor? The lawyer? The businessman?

I’m sure they are as ready as the accused in the Nuremburg trials.

The legal tussle could be thorny, bloody even.

But this early, I believe Rosario has won Round 1.

The impact alone of her resolve to go after the so-called “big fishes” in the city’s determined bid to rid the city of squatters is more than a Hall of Fame move.

I was told many more are being lined up for the firing squad.

Good luck to Mayor Al but more than my buloy, here’s to the Iron Lady of Dagupan.

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