By Gonzalo Duque

 

THE recent brouhaha about the big drug bust in Pozorrubio by the PDEA speaks a lot about Gov. Mon-Mon Guico. After the successful  PDEA operation, not a word was heard from him, even if Pozorrubio is only about a few kilometers away from his hometown Binalonan. Worst, he was nowhere to be found.

I’m really surprised with his deafening  silence about it. His words should have at least squelched a nasty suspicion that his cohorts were involved in the stockpiling of the P2.4 billion worth of shabu in a subdivision in Pozorrubio. In fact, a belated resolution of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan weeks later congratulating PDEA for the successful drug bust operations did not absolve the governor from that naughty suspicion.

From this alone, many are beginning to think our present governor is incompetent, who in his three months in office, reneged in his pledge to present a better and more meaningful programs for Pangasinan than the old one that was in place.

He’s far from the mold of the Espinos who had lorded over the province for 15 years and left mantras like  “I love Pangasinan” and the best of them all “Pangasinan is the best place to live, work and raise a family.” Slogans backed by concrete achievements.

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Since Gov. Mon-Mon beat the Espinos in the polls this year, many asked me if I would consider to run for governor and beat him in 2025. Kaya ko ba daw?

I initially brushed off the thought pero pinag-isip din nila ako. Why not?

I am humbled by the thought that I was the second highest ranking provincial government official during the post-EDSA era as vice governor from 1988 to 1992. I also fought Joe de Venecia twice in the congressional race in the Fourth District of Pangasinan. (Mind you, in my first bout with Manong Joe, I beat him in Manaoag and San Jacinto). 

I won in Manaoag even after the late Dona Consuelo Salazar Perez (bless her soul) prevented me and my team from campaigning inside Hind Sugar and its adjacent communities and the Iglesia ni Cristo went for Manong Joe. I won by 600 votes in Manaoag. In San Jacinto, I won by some 800 votes. 

Of course, the veteran JdV beat me by around 10,000 votes as he won by landslide in Dagupan City and in San Fabian. 

But the times are different today.

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The intensity of  social media today enables anyone to reach out to the people and talk about issues and  priority programs of government.

In fact, in my talks with a lot of people in our province who want to work as Overseas Filipino Workers, they tell me they find little or no job opportunities that give them decent pay in order to feed their families and to provide good education to their children.

Admittedly, our national government hasn’t been able to provide solutions to keep them from working abroad. Methinks the government has been merely scratching the surface of the problem by just merging different government offices. It has not been presenting real solutions.

This is one particular issue I can focus on as governor, and this is actually what I’ve been quietly doing for some time – inviting more investors and capitalists  to do business in our province.

And the only thing I request these investors to repay our hospitality is for them to create  jobs for our people.

I know this is easier said than done but our plans are now on the drawing board to make this into reality.  I will seek to provide these opportunities so that kabaleyans will choose to just work here.

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You know I hate graft and corruption.

Who do you think invented nomenclatures such as “Phase 1, Phase  2 and even Phase 3” on government projects? It was our legislators who institutionalized “pork barrel”  with the connivance of people in the DPWH and contractors. 

Di ba yong tulay sa boundary ng Dagupan at San Fabian ay ilang taon nakatengga?  Tinapos lang pagkatapos ng halos limang taon.  Yan ang tinatawag ni Senator Alan Cayetano as a classic example of “parking” of infrastructure funds.

As governor, I will make sure no politician, DPWH official and their corrupt contractors  in Pangasinan can laugh all their way to the bank.

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 “I collect friends for money” was a quotation I read recently from a book about people wanting to enrich themselves.

In my case, I must start collecting friends who can help me win as governor so I can be in a better position to help our kabaleyans.

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