Wanted: Plans and funds to minimize flooding
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
FINDING some solutions to mitigate the regular flooding in Dagupan City is one thing, and planning is another, but without the funds, all these become wishful thinking.
In sum, the worsening flooding situation in the city will require support of every sector and residents, particularly, of our elected congressmen who must deliver the funds needed to implement the plans.
The city needs Fourth District Rep. Toff de Venecia to lead the rally at the House of Representatives and DAR Sec. Conrado Estrella III to get presidential attention to campaign for proactive support from the cabinet before damage by the flooding in the district turns for the worse.
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DOABLE BY E.O. There is another a doable objective and action for the city government to mitigate flooding in Dagupan. It is the immediate clearing of the Pantal River system of illegal fish pens that contribute to the daily heavy silting of the river bed. Each day the illegal fish pens are allowed to operate, the river bed becomes shallower forcing the river to seek its level beyond its natural path to the sea resulting in the flooding communities for hours, if not days!
However, there appears no end to the continued operation of the illegal fish pens to this day even after the Lim administration exited. A daily pass through the Pantal Bridge on De Venecia Highway will see truckloads of fish feeds being unloaded for delivery to the illegal fish pens that proliferated.
If the city hall does not have the means and capability to dismantle and demolish all the fish pens overnight, it can at least make it difficult for the fish pen owners to operate their illegal business that’s doing a lot of harm to the city. In fact, one executive order will eventually compel the illegal fish pen owners to voluntarily cease their operations with four simple orders to the police, the CIO, city agriculturist and legal officer on the subject:
- Not to allow cargo trucks to park anywhere on the highway beside the river because these obstruct flow of traffic.
- Not to allow overloaded boats to cross the Pantal River for safety reasons.
- Direct the publication and broadcast of names of owners and operators of the illegal fish pens in local media.
- Direct the city agriculturist, legal officer to file charges vs. listed owners for deliberate violation of the fishing ordinance since 2019.
Will the illegal fish pen owners file cases before the courts against these rules without admitting before the courts that they are operating illegally in the city? I seriously doubt that.
It’s an option open to Mayor Belen Fernandez to demonstrate her political will to save the city from continued certain destruction from flooding and to show that the fishing ordinance is strictly enforced in the city.
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FROM SCAMMING TO BLACKMAIL. Scammers and extortionists are having a field day milking unsuspecting citizens of their hard-earned savings and that’s because the law is on their side!
First, there is no law that restricts the use of prepaid sim cards. This allows them to accumulate hundreds of sim cards daily to be used at will for their abominable operations.
Second, the privacy act law prevents the police and other law enforcement agencies from having easy access to their identities and locations.
Third, the lawyers of telco companies refuse to act on police/NBI requests no matter how urgent without a court order or warrant of arrest to prove the urgency.
Meanwhile, the scammers sending out thousands of text messages to unsuspecting mobile phone owners luring the later to reveal their personal data that could lead to their digital banking records. The scammers use “attractive offers” including information about easy access to loans, winning cash prizes, free streaming of games which otherwise are accessible only to paid subscribers, granting immediate employment with high salaries, etc. The only one kind of offer that has not reached me is the chance to earn unlimited use of motel rooms in any city!
Then lately, NBI reported that scammers have become bolder and innovative – directly asking the mobile phone owner to pay up sums of money via extortion – blackmail!
One such case involved a person who was known to have been investigated over a simple complaint. The scammer called the person and claimed to be with the police who was ready to serve a warrant of arrest issued by the court against him. But for P20,000 the warrant can be shelved. The person went to the NBI for help but the latter was refused access to the data on the cellphone by the telco without a court order. Since court orders take time to be issued, that bought time for the scammer to lose all data that could lead the NBI to him. By the time NBI finally go the court order, the data on the phone was already useless.
Another case was a scammer claiming to be a member of a gun-for-hire gang with a contract on the head of the mobile phone owner. The extortionist offered the phone owner a chance to buy off the contract and let him live. Fortunately, the phone owner caught on the scam attempt, called the bluff scam and dared the caller to do his worse. The extortionist-blackmailer stopped calling. But the “threat” forced the phone owner to secure a gun for his protection.
It is for this reason that I urge our newly elected men and women in congress only to refile the bill that was vetoed by PRRD that would have required registration of user of prepaid sim cards but to file a supplementary bill that will compel telco companies to allow law enforcement agencies have access to data to help an ongoing crime investigation.
PRRD vetoed the bill because of an insertion in the bill reportedly made by then Sen. Franklin Drilon that was not related to the sim card issue.
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DAGUPENO AS LTO CHIEF. Recent good news at the home-front was the promotion and appointment of Dagupeño Atty. Teofilo Guadiz III as chief of the Land Transportation Office under the Department of Transportation. He was formerly Region 1’s LTO chief.
While I’ve had serious misgivings about him when he was a city councilor way back in the early 2000s. In fairness to Atty. Jojo Guadiz, it was politics that got in his way as councilor in the city that prevented him from doing what’s right for the city.
Today, I fully support his promotion and, of late, his recent call as LTO chief to LGUs to suspend their “no-contact apprehension” system. There is merit in his call. The system only automatically fines the owner of the vehicle and does not seek to penalize and fine the driver of the vehicle when the violation was committed.
With him functioning as a knowledgeable executive, fully accountable to the appointing presidential power, I can see that he can be expected to deliver what the country needs.
More power to you, Atty. Jojo Guadiz! Make Dagupan proud!
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WANTED: CAPITOL’S PIO. I have no doubt Guv Mon-Mon Guico is working double time to achieve his objectives in his first 100 days.
However, I don’t understand why he has not appointed a provincial information officer to keep Pangasinan abreast of his plans and activities.
The province has yet to hear about his plans and decisions about the management of the post COVID-19 pandemic in Pangasinan, plans for disaster response, launching of his campaign promise of economic programs, etc.
Let’s have it, Guv!
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