Punchline
Respondents: Lim, Baraan et al.
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
First the good news! A Dagupeño has shown us the way how to fight corruption. Edward Santos Jr. filed a complaint against former Mayor Benjie Lim, former City Administrator Raffy Baraan, the Siapno cousins (Mark and Alex) and members of the technical committee.
Now the bad news. Former chief onor-onor Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III and former City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued were not included in the complaint.
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Mr. Guadiz deserves to be included as one among the primary respondents for helping justify the controversial and clearly illegal project, providing some of the city council members who conspired with my favorite mayor and his gang, the “justification” for the adoption of the resolution authorizing the mayor to proceed with the signing of the contract.
Worse, he not only played his vaunted game of political deception on the Dagupeños to the hilt, i.e., endorsing the project after promising to reject it for the right reasons and submitting his committee report to the council for compliance with the mayor’s directive after labeling the MetroState construction as illegal.
Atty. Baniqued, on the other hand, clearly had a part in the conspiracy to cover-up the legal infirmities of the bidding in sync with Mr. Baraan’s swirl of his baton.
This corner urges Mr. Santos, or any other Dagupeño, to file a supplementary complaint adding the two to the list of the respondents. (Mr. Guadiz, by the way, succeeded in rewarding himself further by having himself appointed as assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation and Communication. A case before the Ombudsman will block his appointment and give him what he richly deserves – a kick in the butt).
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Now that a formal complaint has been filed against my favorite city administrator Raffy Baraan, will Guv Spines still insist on appointing him as the provincial administrator?
The governor (and the provincial board members) should bear in mind that it is precisely Mr. Baraan’s credential and capability as an administrator that has been put under a cloud of suspicion by the complaint.
Until the governor proclaims there is no other Pangasinense capable of doing the job of a provincial administrator other than Mr. Baraan, it behooves upon him to search for a better candidate for such a very sensitive and powerful post. He owes the people who voted him in office to reciprocate the trust reposed in him by appointing persons who can be fully trusted to do the right thing for Pangasinan.
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FORGETTING THE BASICS. One would have expected the Dagupan City’s Fernandez administration to move in with guns blazing to better impress its constituents that it means to do better than the Lim administration. From where we sit, we get reports of the administration holding several meetings here and there to move the city forward. Fine. But who’s minding the store up front?
Since the Fernandez tandem took over, there has been no indication that the city will be cleaner and more organized as an urbanized city. It appears that the Fernandez administration is content on simply continuing what the Lim administration started just business as usual!
For instance, the city is still littered with election campaign materials. The barangay councils are not lifting a finger to rid the city of posters etc. because city hall has not given its marching orders. The city’s sewage system is not being checked and cleaned by the city engineering office as if the city will never be flooded anytime soon. The undisciplined jeepney drivers are back with a vengeance.
I certainly hope Mayor Al has since outgrown his ill-advised appreciation of streamers and tarpaulins strung in all corners of the city as materials that provide a “festive mood” (not as eyesores or basura)! I am crossing my fingers that with the help of his son-cum-city administrator Alvin, the city will not revert to the lackluster administration of the city by the previous Fernandez era but will demonstrate a political will to make the city a model for all to admire.
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WHAT’S THE CITY HEALTH OFFICE UP TO? Either the Dagupan City Health Office does not have an appreciation of how mall and shopping arcades operate or it simply refuses to let go of the old racket of prompting business establishments to cough up some grease money lest their applications for sanitary permits be denied.
I am referring to the reported insistence of some sanitation inspectors requiring the two food outlets at the Orient Pacific Center to provide for lavatory facilities inside their small areas or else their applications will be denied!
Is it possible these morons are simply humoring the establishment owners knowing that a clean common toilet with complete facilities can be found in the building? Or are they simply manifesting the fact that they remain underpaid in their positions and therefore need to augment their incomes?
If they would so insist that it’s the right thing to do, then I dare them to require the same from establishments operating inside the CSI, Magic and BHF malls to construct their own individual toilets. If they cannot, then the City Health Officer should not withhold the application of the two establishments (found by patrons to be spotlessly clean) a minute longer!
City Health Officer Dr. Leonard Carbonell can put his men to better use by directing them to monitor operations and cooking facilities of all food outlets in the Malimgas market, carinderias around schools and transport terminals. These operations continue to be unregulated and pose a greater hazard to the unsuspecting public.
But stop this illegal harassment of legitimate businessmen who are not only regularly paying their dues to the city but are doing their level best to promote the city’s economic interests.
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CELEBRATING ERMIN SR. It’s been 41 years since my father was murdered in his editorial office, so I can understand why young journalists and journalism students (and yes, Pangasinenses) have no inkling whatsoever of who he was and why he was killed.
It took overseas Pangasinenses who have been avid readers of the PUNCH Online to make us realize that we owe it to our readers to remind them about the beginnings of the PUNCH, what its mission is to this day.
There is a book written and published by Arsenio Jesena S.J. on the life of my father and this can now be read in our PUNCH Online.
Briefly, my father was the second journalist to be killed (1966) in now the long list of journalist casualties murdered by hired assassins. In Ermin Sr.’s case, it was the politician himself who was the object of a PUNCH expose on payroll padding in government who masterminded and pulled the trigger that led to his conviction. He was, however, granted absolute pardon by President Marcos after 5 years in prison, and reportedly managed to secure a job thereafter at the Bureau of Customs.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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