Punchline
It’s about accountability
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE nauseating stench at the Dagupan City Hall continues to seep out of the many rat holes that have since characterized offices where deals were made to milk the city over the past three years.
Finally, documents showing official cover-up of the budget deficit, mismanagement, illegal practices and shady deals of the Lim administration are coming out, no thanks to the department heads who knowingly participated in the plunder of the city’s resources ands attempted to continue the cover-up even with Mayor Belen Fernandez already at the helm.
Our front-page story on the actual financial standing of the city, only P8.5 million left, still appears to be just a tip of the iceberg notwithstanding our earlier reports on discovered irregularities. Remember the 69 consultants and hundreds of emergency workers that made the city cough up P6 million in salaries alone?
Then came a report of the unliquidated P3 million provided by the DSWD intended for feeding program of malnourished children! And because of the city hall’s failure to liquidate, the continuation of the DSWD project now faces the prospect of being discontinued.
And what does one make of the sabotage of the river cruise program by the tourism office after the Lim administration made the city spend some P11 million for it, and thousands more for its monthly operation?
As the Fernandez administration digs deeper for more resources, I expect more skeletons to surface from under the heaps of documents hastily buried by the culprits.
Curiously, not even Mr. Mata has not dared to refute the discovered anomalies. But how can he unless he has documents to show otherwise? And I doubt that very much since arrogance had him believing nothing could go wrong with the “value engineering” racket.
I sure hope the Fernandez administration will not simply fold its arms after getting to the bottom of the whole mess and just allow those who participated in raiding the city’s coffer to get away with a simple slap on the wrist. Mayor Belen will only have herself to blame if her administration flounders in the process of making the city graft-free all because she didn’t have the political will to prosecute and seek the conviction of city administrator Vlad Mata, his partners-in-crime at the city hall, and Mayor Lim, as the instigator for the huge losses suffered by the city.
This has nothing to do with political payback but plain accountability for misdeeds.
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COQUIA’S PROMISE. Speaking of accountability for funds, re-elected Councilor Alvin Coquia made a public statement during the campaign period that he, unlike his predecessors, will account for the fund management of the 2013 Bangus Festival.
Well. Mr. Coquia, your time is up! Show Dagupeños that you are finally a man of your word, fully transparent and readily accountable to your constituents. Submit your report to the city council and to the mayor. It’s been 2 months since the festival ended.
P.S. The people would like to know why you withdrew P9 million, or P6 million more than the annually allocated P3 million. Your explanation should at least give Dagupeños an understanding why other chairmen of past fiestas and Bangus Festival organized by the Lim administration also used up P9 million like you did. So far, Vice Mayor Brian Lim, Councilors Jess Canto, Emong Vallejos and Red Erfe-Mejia cannot explain how and where they spent the funds. I know you can.
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PAGING DPWH’S ENGR. DION. The commercial establishments along A.B. Fernandez Ave. in Dagupan City are aghast in finding the street drainage along the newly elevated portions to be higher than the sidewalk level, the floor level of the stores!
Indeed, it does not take one to be a rocket scientist to know that since water seeks its own level, so how can the floodwater find the gutter to the drainage when it is almost 12 inches above the sidewalk level.
Before the Dagupeños get all heated up and begin strangling anyone seek working on the street, 2nd District Engr. Rofolfo Dion should take time to explain how the whole thing is expected to work out. To merely echo the objective, which is to stop flooding in the city street and make it passable, he must explain why their stores will not be flooded instead!
Pray tell, Mr. Dion, can DPWH order the floodwater to climb up to the drainage when nothing else works?
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KAP’S SERVANTS. What’s wrong with the officialdom of Barangay Bonuan Binloc?
It looks like the unwritten no. 1 rule in the barangay is “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” . The second rule is “When in doubt, check with Kapitan Pedro Gonzales.”
To this day, not a single barangay councilman or tanod has spoken out to decry the worsening illegal drug trading in their midst, or to protest the inaction of Gonzales.
The deafening silence of SK chairman Chester Gonzales, kapitan’s grandson, he who is expected to lead the fight to protect the young vs. illegal drugs, has become the single reason on his own for the disbanding of the SK across the country. Shame on them!
The recent illegal quarrying of Gonzales in his own barangay with nary a barangay official filing a complaint is simply disgusting. It’s time to boot out the whole officialdom of that barangay and replace them with committed public servants, not with the same set of servants of Kapitan Gonzales.
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UNSOLICITED ADVICE CORNER:
To CONG. GINA DE VENECIA: The best antidote to flooding is still dredging of the Pantal river and other tributaries. Regular dredging will cost the city a lot and given what’s left in the city coffer, Mayor Belen F can’t do much about it. Perhaps with your and Ms. Fernandez’s clout, DPWH can be prompted to allocate more funds for the dredging in addition to the elevation of the A.B. Fernandez Ave. Losses in the city as a result of flooding runs into millions each time.
To DAGUPAN VICE MAYOR BRIAN LIM: Your offer to collaborate with the Fernandez administration is a sign in the right direction. To further normalize political situation in the city and minimize factionalism in the city hall, why not ask a doctor attending to your father to issue a medical bulletin stating the whereabouts and state of health of your father? It’s been two months now since he disappeared and the residents need to know whatever happened to their beloved former mayor and friend.
To GUV SPINES: Lead the way to real reconciliation. Drop the charges against the PNP hierarchy for its role in the last election that began with the irregular appointment of Sr. Supt. Marlou Chan by his superiors. Allow Mr. Chan now to prove his mettle as top chief in the province in the maintenance of peace and order. Sack him if you will but let it be for his failure to meet the target objectives given him, or for instances of insubordination. Political payback never augurs well for true reconciliation. Magnanimity always goes a long way in keeping a legacy intact.
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BELEN’S FRONTLINERS. Congratulations to Atty. Farah Decano and former Judge George Mejia on their well-deserved appointments as city administrator and city legal officer of the Fernandez administration, respectively.
Decano, former IBP Pangasinan chairman and one of the few untainted councilors in the city, can be expected to administer a graft-and-corruption-free affairs of the city while delivering essential services to the populace. Mejia is a veteran in public service with an eagle eye to watch out for graft-ridden agreements and orders.
Between the two, Mayor Belen is in good hands.
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