SP tags ArchB Cruz ‘persona non grata’
LINGAYEN—If the provincial board decides to file the manifesto signed by its members on October 1, retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz will be formally declared persona non grata in Pangasinan.
All members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) signed the manifesto defending Espino on September 21, right after the initial hearing on jueteng by the Senate Blue Ribbon and the Local Government committees where the archbishop reportedly tagged among others Governor Amado Espino Jr. as an alleged jueteng lord.
The provincial board was expected to act on it last Friday but its regular session was suspended on account of a regional meeting of board members in the region held in Baguio.
The two-page manifesto partly reads: “That it is a common sentiment that anybody who malevolently attempts to destroy the credibility of the Governor and endeavors to divert his attention from excellently performing his task of steering the province towards progress and development should be declared as persona non grata in the Province of Pangasinan.”
The manifesto was read by 2nd District Board Member Von Mark Mendoza during a press conference he and Senior Board Member Jeremy Rosario of the Fourth District called at noon of September 22.
“The branding of Governor Espino as a gambling lord is unfair, is not true and is a direct attack to our collective stand as Pangasinenses, as persons and as a province,” Mendoza said.
As the SP rallied behind Espino immediately after the hearing, the governor was then in Manila holding meetings with some foreign investors who have signified intent to build projects in Pangasinan, according to provincial Information Officer Orpheus Velasco
Velasco said the governor has assured the senate committees that he will make himself available in the next Senate hearing on September 28 in order to clear his name, and at which time he may be given a chance to confront his accuser.
Mendoza said they executed the manifesto on their own volition because they know that the Pangasinan governor is being accused unfairly and subjected to trial by publicity.
The board, which considers the accusation against the governor as “patently biased” and “utterly speculative”, has encouraged Espino “not to be affected, much less disturbed” by supposedly malicious insinuations against him.
“POOR MAN’S GAME”
Rosario said the governor himself is not denying that there is jueteng in the province, but only up to the barangay level and is the “on-and-off type”.
Mendoza also admitted there is jueteng in Pangasinan but stressed that it is not an organized operation and is merely being undertaken as “a matter of custom and tradition”.
The SP collectively asserts that the governor did his best to stop jueteng as shown by his series of orders to the provincial police office, but the illegal numbers game is already deeply rooted in the way of life of the Filipinos.
Rosario said jueteng is a disease that had existed long before and it persists because this is a “poor man’s game of chance”.
Signatories to the manifesto aside from Mendoza and Rosario were Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim, Teofilo Humilde Jr.,Napoleon Fontelera Jr., Raul Sison, Generoso Tulagan Jr., Angel Baniqued, Danilo Uy, Clemente Arboleda Jr., Ranjit Shahani, Alfonso Bince Jr., Amadeo Espino, Kazel Celeste and Isabel Villacorta.
STL
At the same time, Rosario announced that the SP has invited the chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) as a resource speaker in its next session to appraise the council on Small Town Lottery (STL), which may be made as an alternative to jueteng.
Both Rosario and Mendoza admitted that STL was proposed for Pangasinan in 2007 but was opposed because it was deemed only to serve as a cover for jueteng.—LM
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