Punchline
Invisible cops
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE Dagupan police have a lot of explaining to do to the business sector. Yet I’m afraid no amount of explaining will acquit them because the fact was there was no police visibility in the area 24/7, a fact that obviously was known to the armed robbers, makes them in default.
“Where were they when you needed them?” was the common reaction after armed robbers struck and carted away millions worth of jewelry during early business hours.
Indeed, where do the city’s cops keep themselves busy 24/7 when they are not visible in the city streets?
Outside of seeing police escorts during motorcades on weekends and sitting inside their outposts, it would seem the police have long yielded peace and order control to business establishments’ security guards, POSO’s traffic enforcers and barangay tanods.
The police can’t hide behind supposed operations vs. drug dealers because much of that work is being done by PDEA. Most if not all successful buy-bust operations were made possible by keeping PDEA’s operations away from the prying eyes of the local police, some of whom are known to be “protectors” of the illegal drug trade.
Neither can the police invoke 24/7 operations vs. illegal gambling because everyone knows jueteng (jai-teng) and drop-ball are daily occurrences in the city.
Campaign vs. prostitution? There is an outpost within stone’s throw of the enterprising nightingales’ pick-up area along Arellano St. – and it’s business as usual in the area 24/7!
So, I wonder what priority missions had been given the police by Mayor Benjie Lim (or son Brian) on 24/7 basis apart from serving as the family’s bodyguards. Just to sit tight and see no evil, hear no evil?
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CENTROMART BOO-BOO. Now that The PUNCH has shown a picture of the page in the Annual Investment Plan (as approved by the Local Development Council and submitted to the city council) where the word “Centromart” was surreptitiously inserted, will Onor-onor Jess Canto be man enough to stand by his word that he will resign as chairman of his committee if the word “Centromart” is found in the AIP?
Not that the complexion of the new majority in the city council will change by his resignation because it won’t. A new chairman after him will still be servile, what with more than 50% of the promised P1.5-M the Judas 9 still receivable from city hall. But I just wonder if “I lied” is another legacy Mr. Canto wants to leave behind when he steps down.
But the bigger implication of his cavalier statement was the fact that he obviously did not meticulously pore over the pages as expected of the chairman of the ways and means committee. He exposed himself as someone who signed the document without reading and without thinking as might be expected of the members of the Judas 9!
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OMINOUS SILENCE. Now, I want to ask those in the private sector whom Mr. Lim listed as representatives of associations and NGOs who allegedly participated and signed the AIP, they whom Mr. Canto and the city hall have pointed to as the ones responsible for the passage of the defective AIP that inserted “Centromart”: Did you also sign the document without reading, without thinking? Or may I add, without participating? For what consideration? Or were you simply misled by the Lim administration? Your continued individual and collective silence is ominous, to say the least.
Then City Engineer Virginia Rosario defended the insertion claiming it is being misinterpreted and that it is not Centromart that will benefit. I have only one question to ask: Why was Centromart the only establishment specifically identified and yet there was a generic reference to public markets in the city. If indeed, Centromart was incidental, I missed any reference to Malimgas Market, and Galvan market, etc. as boundaries. In contrast, on the same page, the report went at great lengths enumerating all areas to be covered, i.e., “NBI, DSWD, Training Center, LTO, city plaza, PMS, DepEd.” Nice try, Engr. Rosario, but try again.
Had the Centromart insertion not been discovered by the minority, it would surely be conveniently cited as justification in the future to enable Lim’s Centromart to use city funds. I can already imagine someone among the ex-future Judas 9 loudly proclaiming – “Centromart was clearly stated in the AIP that was approved, so why question the expenditure now?”
Was the insertion a part of the P1.5-M deal for the Judas 9? And some members of the LDC? Just asking.
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A PAYBACK FOR DOING RIGHT. Politics is again rearing its ugly head at the Pangasinan Press Club. Not that it surprises me that it is happening but that it is prompted in defense of what is patently wrong.
I refer to the move initiated by misguided members of a press club recently organized and supported by Dagupan Mayor Benjie Lim (need you ask why?) petitioning the ouster of PUNCH’s Gonz Duque as president of the club.
The petition is clearly meant as a payback for the sacking of radio commentator Orly Navarro by Aksyon Radyo management as its regular commentator last week.
Mr. Navarro’s services were suspended reportedly for incessantly violating the KBP’s code of broadcast ethics, specifically, and that of a journalist in particular. As his listeners will attest, he had been critical of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, something that a professional like Gonz can tolerate. But when his attacks began to focus on personal issues of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, and Mr. Navarro increasingly became more descriptive in insulting the vice mayor in his commentaries, Gonz had no choice but to promptly pull the plug.
After all, as a lawyer, he knows that the media owner is equally criminally liable as the commentator should a slander (libel) complaint be filed against the latter in any forum or court.
But that aside, knowing Gonz, a petition to oust him will hardly faze him.
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STILL LUCKY. There can be no justification for a media practitioner to insult anyone on a personal level. In fact, this is not only unethical but downright criminal for which the country’s penal code punishes.
Clearly, Gonz had the mind not only to set an example to media owners but to remind club’s members about the need to be professional in their respective and individual practices and save themselves from costly legal suits they can ill afford.
Here’s how the law on libel and slander operates: One cannot describe a person ugly even if its’ the truth in the eyes of many. It’s worse when it’s a falsity. Such irresponsible statements are punishable by at least 6 years of imprisonment plus millions in damages.
So Mr. Navarro can count his lucky stars that VM Belen is reportedly only contemplating to file a complaint before the KBP for his malpractice. A case in court can mean certain imprisonment for him. Lest he and other people have forgotten, libel has not been decriminalized.
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