Punchline
Decorp’s dubious business policy
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE continuing impasse in the handling of the Dagupan City government’s order to the Dagupan Electric Corp. (Decorp) to terminate its service contracts for the meter lodged at the MC Adore hotel building, is showing a pattern of lack of responsibility on the part of Decorp.
Recall that Decorp also found itself mired in the controversy involving the illegal occupancy of public lands in Bonuan Binloc. In 2011, then Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and her allies in the city council stumbled upon a land-grabbing racket at the city’s beachfront. When the then Lim administration was confronted with it, it promptly claimed that the documents attesting to their ownership were falsified. Then Mayor Benjie Lim and his administrator Vlad Mata were adamant in claiming that their signatures in the documents were forged.
That was reported by The PUNCH and an investigation by the city council ensued. Decorp responded with an inventory of its facilities in the area and presented to the city council documents submitted to them by the alleged illegal occupants. Decorp went through the motion of identifying whose documents were found to be spurious but stopped short of disconnecting the service of any of the illegal occupants.
That was three years ago and the meters remain with the establishments illegally occupying the beachfront today. Obviously, it was convenient for the Decorp management that the Lim administration did not pursue the investigation. (Recall that then Councilor Brian Lim blocked the city council’s plan to call in the National Bureau of Investigation claiming that the city hall was already doing its own investigation. Of course, that never happened).
Now comes the Citystate Savings Bank case. Decorp said it would comply with the city hall’s order to terminate the service contract but with a caveat – Decorp claims it does not know how to implement it. Duh. Between the Bonuan Binloc scandal and the Citystate bank’s unauthorized use of the city government’s meter, it seems Decorp has found a convenient way to continue its business with whoever regardless of their status with the city government, using every possible loophole in the book to circumvent the rules. This is the same Decorp that would not hesitate to disconnect power from residents over a single day’s delay in the payment of their bills.
The pattern makes Decorp’s corporate citizenship wanting in civic responsibility, and its business policy becoming dubious.
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The city council should initiate an inquiry into Decorp’s operations to probe why the illegal occupants of government lots in Bonuan Binloc continue to be provided electricity even after the city government declared the documents in its possession as fraudulent. In fact, the sanggunian should finally do what it set out to do but didn’t – to call in the NBI to finally determine who were behind the land-grabbing syndicate that sold the premium beachfronts.
Specifically, Dagupeños would like to know: 1) Who facilitated the issuance of the fake certifications? 2) Who issued the tax declarations without proof of land titles? 3) Are the signatures on the documents fake/forged? By whom? 4) If the signatures are authentic, will the Belen administration file the cases against the city officials who signed the documents? 5) Why hasn’t Decorp disconnected the power provided the establishments upon determination by the city government that the documents in its possession were fraudulent?
And while they are at it, the city council should seek an explanation from Decorp why it cannot (and refuses) to comply with the directive from the city mayor to terminate the service contract of the meter at the MC Adore. 1) If it has, what took it so long? If not, is the city government continuously liable for any possible misuse of the meter? 2) If so, under whose name is the electric meter listed today? Has the new customer complied with the requirements set by the city government?
Will the city council under Vice Mayor Brian act? Or is the city doomed to be a government of the three wise monkeys who see, hear and speak nothing to uphold the law?
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BETTER THAN SCTEX. Last week, I posted on Facebook and Twitter an account of my distressing experience at the SCTEX in the hands of its traffic enforcers.
Briefly, I was driving northbound when I was pulled over by five enforcers waiting at the Luisita toll exit. I was told I was over-speeding at 127kph but they could not show me proof of it. It was their arrogance and refusal to give me the courtesy, as their customer, to show proof of my violation that I felt abused and bullied. (As others later confirmed and shared on FB, a number were treated no differently in the past). They confiscated my license and issued me a 72-hour temporary permit despite a plea for understanding that I would be on the road for the next 4 days (88 hours). Nothing mattered to them and I was left to fend for myself risking being found driving without a license after 72 hours. (Was I stupid not to offer P200 for privilege to get off the violation? Perhaps, but I surely don’t regret not even thinking of doing it, even with the inconvenience attached to it).
That was my predicament and travail. But that story didn’t end there for me. There was a silver lining to it. Out of disgust, I decided not to patronize SCTEX on my return trip to Manila. I took the MacArthur Highway all the way from Luisita to Mabalacat. And wow, was I pleasantly surprised and relieved that my travel time was just as good when I take SCTEX .
There are now long stretches of 4 lanes on MacArthur Highway from Capas to Mabalacat, and one could run on any speed without fear of being harassed by any traffic enforcer. Sure, SCTEX provides you with a non-stop 100 kph maximum cruising speed but all that advantage is actually diminished by the long wait caused by long queues at the toll exit gate in Mabalacat, or the normal long detour to get back to the main highway.
So the morale of my story? If you want to avoid possibly being harassed at SCTEX and still get to your destination on time, try the MacArthur Highway (Luisita-Mabalacat) with a bonus: Save P89 and at least a liter of gas! (The NLEX stretch is a different story… you have no choice but to avoid more than 8 towns to cut your travel time).
So believe it when they say, there is always a silver lining in every misfortune that befalls you.
(TIP: When traveling on MacArthur Highway, there is a Shell gas station (the only one) between Rosales and San Manuel town that sells much cheaper gas and diesel (cash-basis-no credit card) than any gas station in northern and central Luzon, including Metro- Manila).
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KUDOS TO KBP. Our sincerest congratulations to the KBP Pangasinan chapter (led by Jay Mendoza) for earning a citation as one of the best in the country.
I have no doubt the chapter can easily be the country’s cream of the crop if it does more to strictly impose KBP’S code of standards on its members. More importantly, I know that the community’s respect that our broadcast practitioners enjoy today can be notches higher if all its members take to their practice professionally.
Unfortunately for the broadcast sector, it doesn’t have the luxury of editing commentaries prior to broadcast that the print media has to make sure that commentaries are within the bounds of fairness and decency. Hence, the danger of being licentious and going overboard with insults, rude and offensive remarks that border on slander are always present.
There is one DJ, a commentator-wannabe, who reportedly insults his news subjects when interviewing them in his program. He must be taught KBP’s standards by the chapter before he becomes a huge embarrassment to the KBP chapter. Definitely, a fly in the ointment.
Mabuhay kayo KBP!
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