The tale of the Dagupan open dumpsite

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

WITH the bright glaring Christmas lights adorning Dagupan’s main business district and the city plaza, prepping up residents for the joyous celebration of the spirit of Christmas, one would easily get the impression that all’s well in the city. Well not quite.

Unknown perhaps to many, the Lim government recently attempted to unilaterally cancel the city’s contract with Sure Global Phils. (SGP) for the operation of the ‘Waste-to-Worth’ project inked by the Belen Fernandez administration. Obviously, the Lim administration naively believed it’s to be expected since it’s a completely new administration at the helm, it can change the city’s course. It’s supposed to be a “No-big-deal,” political action. It’s like running affairs in a civic organization. Wrong.

Because of that unstudied, off-the-cuff decision that Mayor Brian Lim appears to be used to, believing he cannot be made responsible for junking the W-2-W project since he did not sign it as mayor, the CEO of SGP came to the city to straighten him up. The bottom line drawn to him is: comply with the terms of the legal contract or face possible multi-million in damages plus imprisonment for him and the rest of the city’s officials who gave the authority to sign the contract, and today’s members of the city council for refusing to reverse the mayor’s decision. Fortunately for Mayor Brian, SGP is still giving him a chance to clear his mind and to get back to the table.

What Mayor Brian does not appear to be aware of is his decision to junk the contract is going to be more damning for him, more than anyone else. If he decides to stick with his decision, he cannot easily wash his hands off the deal because the authority that granted Mayor Belen to enter into the agreement emanated from the city council. Guess who was the presiding officer of the city council as vice mayor? Then VM Brian Lim!

To cancel the contract, therefore, would easily establish his criminal liability for acting maliciously and in bad faith! He cannot deny the contract had his authority! Tsk-tsk!

This is the problem of Mayor Brian. He thinks his mindset and exposure as a civic organization world president, is enough to make him sail smoothly as mayor. Not true.

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GHOST OF OPEN DUMPSITE. But there’s more about the contract he wants junked.

Little did he realize that his attempt at the unilateral cancellation of the ‘W-2-W’ brought him back to the same situation that caused the first scandal that rocked Mayor BSL’s (his father) administration – the attempt to solve the city’s outlawed open dumpsite. 

Mayor BSL floated the sanitary landfill as a predicate to launch the anomalous purchase of the 30-hectare land in Barangay Away in San Jacinto. Today, Mayor Brian is in that same situation that can make the city lose a lot more by canceling the contract intended to solve the open dumpsite issue.

Let’s cut to the chase, it was his father who made the city cough up P16 million for a P7 million property ostensibly bought by his friend, Mariano Cuña and sold it to the city. And since the title was not and could not be transferred to the city government, the city government is asking Cuña to return the money. Today, since the death of BSL, Mayor Brian, his mother and sister are now being made to account for the return for the P16 million to the city. So, as far as the city is concerned, Mayor Brian must still account for the P16-M money because of the open dumpsite.

Now comes his cancellation of the SGP contract so he can enter into another questionable contract for the delivery of the city’s trash to a landfill in Tarlac. He will not also only be made to personally pay multimillions in damages on his personal account but for the city as well. 

So in spite of all the Christmas lights lining up the city’s main street and bridges, there are dark days ahead for the city if Mayor Brian proceeds with his unilateral cancellation. I still hope the more knowledgeable and mature friends surrounding him will tell him that he has really no choice but to pursue the project for his own sake, if not for the city.

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DAGUPAN IS DRUG-INFESTED AGAIN! We have the news that Dagupan City is still awaiting to be declared as drug-cleared having complied with the administrative requirements.

But I wonder how that can still happen with the recent arrest of a high value drug target and the raid of a drug den in the city. (Read “Drug den in Dagupan raided… page 7) 

That news stinks so high in the drug war in the city and yet nobody is again being held accountable. For someone so daring to be able to operate a drug den at her home for months, it can only mean the drug pusher and den maintainer is enjoying some protection in the barangay, from the police and possibly the city hall.

The drug den that was raided was in Barangay Bonuan Gueset. The barangay kapitan is Noel Bumanglag. The chief of police is P/Lt. Col. Abubakar Mangelen Jr. The head of PDEA is Dexter Asayco.  The mayor is Brian Lim. Who’s accountable?

Another thing is ultra clear… there is continuous shabu supply reaching Dagupan City.  Hmmm… paging P/Col. Redercio Maranan!

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CONSPIRACY IN MANIPUD’S CASE. The mysterious death of Godofredo Manipud on August 6, 2017 continues to incriminate suspects involved in a suspected conspiracy.

The NBI investigation of the case was being handled by Dagupan Agent Mike Caceres but he suddenly terminated it without prior advice to the relatives of the victim. Curiously, even the NBI Dagupan operations chief Rizaldy Jaymalin was caught unaware how the case was terminated.

The Manipud family was not taking NBI’s unilateral decision sitting down. Marissa, one of the victim’s daughter, arrived from the USA and confronted both Caceres and Jaymalin about the circumstances that led to the termination, given already the evidence gathered on the case. According to Marissa, a federal agent with the US Department of Justice said, Caceres had no justifiable reasons to offer for the termination in front of Jaymalin.

To protect the integrity of his office, it behooves Jaymalin, as Dagupan chief, to investigate Caceres’s motive for terminating the investigation of the case the way he did.

Meanwhile, expect the Manipud family to closely monitor the joint investigation that will be launched jointly by the Dagupan police and the NBI after Marissa was assured of the reopening of the investigation.

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