7 EpaLiFes knocked out on 9th round
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THERE you have it. DILG dealt the ‘Sunday Punch’ (Merriam-Wester: A powerful devastating blow) knockout on the 7epaLiFes at the Sangguniang Panlungsod on the 9th round (month)!
The glory days of the 7 EpaLiFes are definitely over. Whether they like it or not, the legal opinion of the DILG regional office literally dumped them in the political wasteland of Dagupan City.
They obviously didn’t see the DILG throwing them under the bus happen at any time because they have long been blinded by their arrogance and power-mad disposition since they took their oaths as councilors. They believed their numbers alone could do them no wrong. They believed theirs was a political haven where no video, no minutes, no debate can stop them, not even the Local Government Code can! Or so they thought!
Why and how their 8-month joy-ride ended abruptly was their own undoing. Perhaps it’s because their series of plots were without precedence, so no lessons learned. They felt they were unstoppable when they went on a rampage from the day they instituted the Internal Rules that violated the intents of the democratic process, particularly, their rule that excludes all members of the minority in all committees. They even made sure the 5-man minority knew its limits when they deliberately violated LGC rule that specifically stated that the head of the Sangguniang Kabataan should head the Youth Committee by pushing SK chairman Joshua Bugayong out of the way, and with no voting rights.
Oh, they even tried to bar The PUNCH from covering their secret committee meetings on the city’s proposed 2023 annual budget. But that overbearing act deserved to be reported to the DILG for violating the basic tenets of press freedom and freedom of information, I filed the complaint against Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia.
The height of the insolence and conceit of the 7 EpaLiFes was the day they decided that the minutes of the February 7 regular session be completely deleted and forgotten. They desperately wanted it to appear that the events and discussions that took place when Mayor Belen Fernandez showed up at the session hall rallying public support for the passage of the annual budget, never happened. Councilor Dada Reyna-Macalanda should thank her stars the she’s not a lawyer because her motion to delete the minutes would have been enough to disbar her.
Indeed, the sight of them acting euphoric each time they thought they got away with the violations without thought of any accountability to the DILG, worse, not to their constituents made many puke on their images!
Whoever made themselves believe that they are empowered by law to do anything as they please, using their numbers mainly as the force to reckon with, must have been deranged over the years, and the 7 EpaLiFes were dumb and dumber as they went to embrace that idiotic principle without question.
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BAD NEWS. City Mayor Belen Fernandez virtually closed the issue on the malversation of the scholarship fund by the Brian Lim administration by acknowledging the legitimacy of only 781 scholars, out of 2,300 listed by that committee.
That was good news for the qualified scholars whose education was temporarily affected by the discovery of massive corruption in the utilization of the scholarship.
The bad news? There is still no update from Mayor Belen about the criminal and administrative cases she ordered filed last month against the committee members even after determining that only 781 scholars can be deemed legitimate.
Discovered were more than a thousand of “ghost, fake and disqualified” scholars from among 2,300 listed names. Surely, criminal and administrative cases with the documented evidence can be won by any lawyer worth his/her salt.
But it appears City Legal Officer Aurora Valle still thinks she doesn’t have enough evidence to win a conviction for the committee members headed by then Mayor Brian Lim. If so, I respectfully suggest to Mayor Belen that she appoints her as city administrator then appoint a more experienced legal officer who can help stop graft and corruption as a legacy of the Belen administration.
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2ND PH LEADERSHP FORUM. Four prominent provincial officials DAR Sec. Conrado Estrella III, Guv Ramon Guico III, Congress Reps. Rachel Arenas and Mark Cojuangco have been invited to the 2nd Philippine Leadership Forum on Saturday, March 18, 2023, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in UP-BGC Campus, 32nd Street, BGC in Taguig City.
At presstime, not one has reportedly accepted the opportunity to input their respective visions for Pangasinan. It’d be a shame if Pangasinan is not ably represented in that prestigious forum.
Both Messrs. Estrella and Guico can define to the country what lies ahead in the development of the agriculture industry in the province amid incessant reports of shortages particularly in rice and recently onions and salt. Mr. Cojuangco is the point person for nuclear energy in the country, with eyes on Labrador town. Ms. Arenas, a businesswoman herself, is most qualified to discuss entrepreneurial programs for women and equitable roles in governance for women.
I sure hope they will find time to join that forum.
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