By Leonardo Micua

 

AFTER the flag ceremony at the city plaza last June 5, Mayor Belen Fernandez rushed to Manila to receive the Pasidungog Award for the city of Dagupan from the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

The mayor tagged along to Manila City Schools Superintendent Rowena Banzon and Assistant City Schools Superintendent Marciano Soriano when she received the award for the city.

Expectedly, the seven majority councilors obviously invited by ex-Mayor Brian Lim, now the coordinator of VP Duterte’s satellite office at Poblacion Oeste in Dagupan City, were in that occasion too.

Of course, they saw Mayor Belen on that occasion, especially when she received the Pasidungog Award from VP Sara at the stage. Of course, they snubbed each other.  Let’s just say the feeling was mutual.

But the seven reportedly later asked for a photo op with Mayor Belen. And because Mayor is not as brittle as a plastic (if you know what I mean, but is actually a sterner one), she refused.

As there was still a lot of work she had to attend to in her city, Mayor Belen and her group left the venue ahead of the majority seven.

The seven obviously lingered longer in Manila while aware that they scheduled a committee hearing the following day to discuss the Balay Silangan that Mayor Belen wants to establish. Establishing the facility is one of the requirements of PDEA before a town or city could be declared drug-free.

Because the committee on dangerous drugs, chaired by Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia, had more questions to ask about Balay Silangan, PDEA Regional Director Joel Plaza opted to personally attend the hearing set starting at 9:00 a.m. on June 7.

But lo and behold. Councilor Erfe-Mejia sent a text message 12:48 a.m. June 6, to City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo informing him that the scheduled hearings of the committees manned by the seven majority councilors were cancelled.

It was already simply too late to inform the invited resource speakers about the cancellation of the committee hearings, particularly in the case of Director Plaza who was already in town with his entourage ready to respond to the invitation from the majority councilors.

And proof of this, Director Plaza was at the Camp Antonio Sison in Lingayen later in the day to personally present a certificate to the PNP Pangasinan Police Provincial Office declaring it a Drug-Free Work Place.

The seven came up with different excuses that were too lame to believe as reasons for cancelling the scheduled committee hearings since they were all together hours before the text message for the cancellation was sent.

Recall that they skipped a regular session to honor the invitation of ex-Mayor Brian Lim to another official event of the OVP.  They decided to skip sessions at the drop of a hat.

PDEA is deadly serious about its responsibility about the need to establish a Balay Silangan in every LGU as a part of the continuing campaign to finally eradicate illegal drugs.

The problem is, the seven-majority councilors appear bent on again throwing a monkey wrench on the illegal drugs campaign, as they have done with other major programs of Mayor Fernandez by simply stating that they are not convinced by data and statements made available to them.

This was exactly what they did to Supplemental Budget No.1 and to the annual budget proposed by Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Their modus to derail Mayor Belen’s program on illegal drugs will not work on PDEA this time. And the Philippine National Police.

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