Punchline
The latest on Dagupan City’s “onor-onors”
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
UP FOR RENEWAL? Here’s a curious initiative of Dagupan’s chief onor-onor Teofilo Guadiz III.
After 6 years in the city council, Mr. Guadiz comes forward to tell us that he just noticed the series of encroachments along the Pantal River. This must either be his biggest joke on us, believing he can fool the people all the time, or he has become the biggest joke, not knowing any better being the no. 1 absentee councilor since he became a councilor.
Of course, this is nothing new! But why is he coming around with an old issue making it appear like it’s a new one? Perhaps, he is banking on the people’s short memory… that nobody remembers how the Fernandez administration then and Lim administration in year 2000 tried to make the violators account. It was the first year of Mr. Benjie Lim as mayor and Mr. Guadiz’s first term as city councilor. (To my recollection, it was also the year the sanitary landfill scam was hatched by city hall and the year the title “onor-onor” came into being).
So what, pray tell, happened to that attempt to make Star Plaza and Pangasinan Merchants Marine Academy legally responsible for the illegal encroachment? Nothing. Perhaps Mr. Guadiz should first explain to the public whatever happened to their investigation before re-packaging himself and his advocacy this time around. Did he and the mayor finally file the cases against those verified to have encroached on the river? Did the city government or DENR collect penalties? Finally, why did the city government suddenly turn cold to the idea of reclaiming the encroached areas?
This leads me to the question: Why the particular renewed interest in the “resolved” encroachment problem, Mr. Guadiz? Has the “solved encroachment contract” expired and is now up for renewal? Or are you targeting the “encroachment” of the warehouse owned by your erstwhile bossman, Mr. Lim? With the 2007 elections just around the corner, I can only venture a good guess.
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NEW TOURIST DESTINATION. If the Tondaligan Park in Dagupan City no longer appeals to you as a tourist, then try driving along Pantal Road and have a fantastic view of the brand new, overpriced but inoperable dredging machine of the city anchored in the middle of the river pretending to be doing its work.
Word has it that the dredging machine, Made in China, does not have the correct specifications to do the job. Worse, the city government no longer has the funds to buy the diesel just to move it around the river, much less to operate the dredger. And even if they have the diesel to operate it, it’s the wrong machine for the job.
But wonder of all wonders, not a single city councilor is even asking for an investigation on the status of this important yet non-performing asset of the city. Where are all the councilors who rushed the approval of the ordinance authorizing the purchase without the benefit of a public bidding and who blindly approved the specifications submitted by the city mayor?
If they are much too embarrassed to come forward, may I humbly suggest they still make themselves useful by posting themselves atop the dredging machine on a rotation basis to add color to this city’s newest tourist destination.
Here’s my proposed sales pitch: “View the world’s newest and useless dredging machine made possible by the world’s foremost absentee city mayor and the world’s one and only onor-onors! Only in Dagupan City”.
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FROM BANGUS FEST TO TINDA’Y LABI. I believe the “Tinda’y Labi” project is a good, worthy initiative. It deserves the support of the Dagupan City government for it can serve as a template for a more permanent night market in the city.
But wait, there’s a big, big fly in the ointment and the public ought to stand back and check out the integrity of the project. Councilor Nic Aquino is the organizers’ chief patron in the city. And lest you forget, he is the same councilor who has refused to account to this day, the millions that he, as chairman of both the 2004 city fiesta and 2006 Bangus Festival, received from the city government and the sponsors.
In this project, he was seen trying to defend the organizers’ offer to pay the city government a measly P30 for each booth rented out despite the windfall the project expects to generate from sponsors alone.
It would be best for the Tinda’y organizers to ask Mr. Aquino why he refuses to account for the monies he received before going all out with him on this project. Or is it possible that they already know the answer and are going with him precisely because of it? Hmmm.
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CONGRESSMEN TO THE CABINET. I have no doubt that the shortlist of nominees for the defense portfolio bears names of qualified persons, including that of our Congressman Amado Espino.
However, I wonder if a congressman being wooed to consider a cabinet post is aware that he stands to lose a lot if he accepts the post. Firstly, he has no tenure and, as the cliche’ goes, “he will serve at the pleasure of the President” unlike a congressman who enjoys a mandate and fixed tenure regardless of the number of scandals he may be involved in. Secondly, the congressman will have to give up his pork barrel and can only hope to earn some extras through bided contracts. Fourth, the congressman stands to lose his network to his successor in the district, making a comeback more difficult.
A cabinet post should only be attractive to a congressman who has served his third term. In Mr. Espino’s case, he’s just gunning for his second reelection so while he should be flattered, my sense is he should not take it on.
Malacañang is a snake pit that has devoured many a congressman through the years. One can find their political skeletons dumped by the Pasig River. I would hate to see Mr. Spine’s among them in a year or two.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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