The Duque brothers score big

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

The week that passed was certainly an exciting one for the Duque brothers – Cesar and Gonz! Their respective universities (University of Pangasinan for Cesar and Lyceum Northwestern University for Gonz) produced topnotchers in the recent nurses’ licensure exams.

Obviously, the higher standards they have set for their universities have started to pay off. But perhaps, the news of their graduates topping the exams this year was even sweeter for Gonz.

It will be recalled Gonz fought off and took on anyone (particularly officials of the Commission on Higher Education) who dared to thumb their noses at LNU’s standards particularly on nursing education. 

What a vindication for fiery Gonz, he who loves to play with fire, and for Cesar, a fantastic return on his vision for UPang, a shiny crown jewel on his head.

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ABSENTEES GALORE. First the good news. A day after The PUNCH came out with its story on the Dagupan City councilors’ worsening delinquency, the city council had a near perfect attendance last Monday! The only guy who left a fly in the ointment was Councilor Vlad Mata.  Why, even councilor Teofilo Guadiz III, the city’s consistent topnotcher in absences since 2000, was present!

Now the bad news. I have not heard of any inclination by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, the most diligent official in the council, to file administrative complaints against the incorrigible delinquents under his wing. People are beginning to wonder if he realizes that being “Mr. Nice Guy” is not always the way to get things done.

Then for an even worse news! Our mole in the city hall says all the councilors were in fact paid for their absences! (But City Accountant Bernardo Tamondong claims his office is deducting the P1,000 fine for absences as provided in the resolution adopted by the councilors). The casual employees on whom the “no-work-no-pay” is applied must be frothing in the mouth when they see the councilors getting paid for being absent.      

Then, it appears, not even the local office of the Department of Interior and Local Government is prepared to enforce the sanctions provided in the local government code about absences. Ms. Expedita Callanta, head of the local DILG here, says she has to wait for a formal complaint before she can actually act on the delinquent public officials. No wonder, we have city officials who believe they can get away with murder.

Ms. Callanta, if it suits you, let this article serve as my formal complaint against these elected officials for dereliction of duty. If this doesn’t satisfy you, then God help us. We have a government that looks to bureaucratic ek-ek to justify its existence.

Looks like my classmate DILG Sec. Ronnie Puno speaks with a forked tongue when he says he wants to promote good governance among local officials.

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NO TWO KINDS OF ENFORCEMENT. To my mind, the reported insistence of Dagupan City Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo to pay his P300 fine after being caught littering brought undeserved attention to him. Undeserved because that was expected of him as a city official and as a law-abiding citizen. Perhaps he should be commended for wanting to be an example to his peers and to those who insist they are VIPs and untouchables, but the incident must be viewed in a different context if something has to be learned from it.

What I believe people sorely missed when they lavished Mr. Tamayo with plaudits for his unsolicited gesture, it is the mindset and perception of law enforcers that strict enforcement only applies to the have-nots and the powerless.

A case in point is the “take-no-prisoners” policy of the city government when enforcing the law against sidewalk vendors. Quite commendable in fact.  I think Mr. Butch Gutierrez and his team are in the right stalking these vendors, and they have the public’s gratitude for strictly enforcing the ordinance.

But this brings to the fore the inequity in the enforcement of the city’s ordinances.

Why aren’t business establishments who display their wares onto the sidewalks, or repair cars, motorcycles, bicycles on the sidewalks fronting their stores not accosted or fined by the city government? For all intents and purposes, these stores illegally occupy the sidewalks as much as the sidewalk vendors would.

This, I believe, is the vital lesson to be learned from Mr. Tamayo’s gesture. In our country, people who have neither the rank nor the social standing are promptly fined but not the likes of Mr. Tamayo.

If  Mr. Tamayo feels his gesture should not all be in vain, I would suggest that he goes further by lecturing COMET and other enforcement task forces on how law enforcement should be done… that they should not wait for the likes of him to volunteer to comply, but seek to enforce  laws/ordinances fairly and equitably on all. 

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RAUL VS. THE BISHOPS OF THE NORTH. What we thought would never happen, happened. I have to credit Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias, formerly of La Union, for pushing the envelope.

If you read between his lines, claiming that he did no wrong for providing shelter to escaped Magdalo officers and asked the people to judge him, his message is to GMA is unmistakably crystal clear: “Do your worst and I’ll do my best.” And from what I’ve heard last from Mr. Cool Intimidator Gonzales, he appears to have finally acknowledged that he has met his comeuppance – the outspoken catholic bishops!

So far, he has managed to tiptoe around Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz who had pulled all stops to implicate FG Mike Arroyo and his son Mikey to the jueteng payola. He was muted the whole time jueteng payola was being investigated in the senate. Mr. Gonzales was certainly careful not to open his mouth when the archbishop spoke. But not this time.

The brash Gonzales in his signature nonchalant attitude intimidating GMA’s foes and ordinary folks, now finds himself painted to a corner where he has no choice but to react and appear to be consistent with his earlier pronouncements condemning the “destabilizers”. Yet, one cannot but sense his effort at biting his tongue and stops short at labeling Bishop Tobias a destabilizer. His strongest words so far: “No one is above the law.”

But his nightmare is just about to begin. Try as he might avoid having to cross swords with Archbishop Cruz, the discredited jueteng witnesses and now the new attack dogs for GMA, Richard Garcia and Demosthenes “Abe” Riva, have unwittingly lined up the archbishop directly on Gonzales’ sight. They swear Archbishop Cruz was one among other bishops who plotted the overthrow of the GMA government.

Mr. Gonzales must now be asking GMA for the head of the nitwit in the Palace who resurrected jueteng’s katzenjammer kids to shoot off their mouths big time at his expense.

Watch out for the true battle-royale that could finally flay GMA’s nerves of steel something that the political opposition can never hope to do – but only the likes of Cruz and Tobias can.

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