By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

DAGUPEÑOS should not miss to view Sangguniang Panlungsod’s official video recording of the shameless account of the October 9 regular session. It showed members of the majority bloc literally losing it as they desperately tried to manipulate the annulment of the 2023 annual budget that was finally passed last October 5, and failed!

Believe you me, it was the most scandalous political scene never seen in Dagupan’s political history since postwar days. I honestly thought I had already seen the worst of their “kind” of public servants, I was wrong. So, I’m no longer certain that nothing could be worse than last week.

The SP hall literally turned into a noisy mess hall where loud bullying, cussing and shouting of invectives were considered the decorum of the day. All parliamentary rules were thrown out the window and it was even highlighted by a loud manifestation of a hallucination of one of the 7 epaLiFes that their lives right inside the session hall were at risk! Imagine that?

Take a bow Councilors Red Erfe-Mejia, Alfie Fernandez, Dada Reyna-Macalanda, Celia Lim, Irene Lim-Acosta Alvin Coquia and Malou Fernandez! You earned a high level of notoriety from your shitty arrogance and sheer ignorance of parliamentary rules and decorum.

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BRATTY RED & IRENE. Catch the part that showed an arrogant Councilor Erfe-Mejia leading the offensive, particularly after VM Bryan Kua ruled that only members who were present during the September 26 and October 5 regular sessions could vote on his motion – to defer approval of the minutes of the two sessions. That meant only four of the seven in the bloc could vote.

When VM Kua resisted the majority bloc’s vehement protests, all hell broke loose.

The majority bloc rose from their seats and threw all forms of decency and established parliamentary decorum out the window.  Even Councilor Alfie took the microphone from his ally and began his own tirade against the VM Kua.

When VM Kua ruled them as out of order, he was plainly ignored.

Then out of the nowhere, Mr. Erfe-Mejia suddenly began shouting at the top of his voice claiming someone in the session hall was carrying a gun ostensibly with the intent of shooting one or all of them. He kept filling the hall with his shrill voice, ranting for almost five minutes. But Mr. Kua was unperturbed and directed Secretary Mr.  Ryan Ravanzo to continue the voting process. Councilor Red even asked people inside the hall to close the doors and prevent anyone from leaving the hall! Wow!

Then there was Councilor Irene Lim-Acosta who barged into the session hall, looking in the direction of VM Kua, shouting invectives. She was heard shouting “Masyado ka na…bastos tong pu..ng ina” then followed again by “pu..ng ina mo vice mayor na to!!”.  Fortunately for the newfound bratty councilor, her sober and stateswoman-mom, Councilor Celia Lim was quick to restrain her, covered her mouth and pushed her to her seat to prevent her from being the center of the scandalous situation.  But too late! The video already caught her spewing expletives all over the place. (Ex-Mayor Benjie Lim’s daughter was often seen clapping and cheering loudly from the sidelines each time her idol Mr. Erfe-Mejia appeared to have deftly repulsed attempts by Minority Leader Michael to introduce resolutions that didn’t serve the majority bloc’s agenda).

Then, to further taunt the VM Kua as presiding officer, Councilor Alfie shouted a motion to adjourn in the middle of the discussion of the voting. His motion was followed by loud chants of “Adjourned…Adjourned…Adjourned” by the rest of the epaLiFes, who turned around without waiting for a ruling on the notion to adjourn and walked out of the hall. But there was Mr. Erfe-Mejia who could not resist calling out VM Kua and the rest of the councilors in the minority: “BASTOS…BASTOS KAYONG LAHAT!” before he walked out. (He would have would been more candid if he shouted: “BASTOS KAMING LAHAT! Right?) Councilor Bratty gave her last shot, too, before her dutiful mom could stop her again.

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HALLUCINATION. But let’s go to the hallucination of Mr. Erfe-Mejia shared by Mr. Coquia during their “live streaming” at the police station where they were supposed to file a report that their lives “were in danger” as evidenced by the presence of a “hitman” inside the session hall. And as expected they played the victim card to the hilt. He cried out loud saying their lives inside the session hall were in danger and the discussion on his motion was no longer important. But their faces didn’t mean what they were saying.  Why?

What the two epaLiFes didn’t tell their audience was there was no ‘hitman’ inside the hall and their suspect was in fact a mere job order employee assigned to the SP to do odd jobs. Worst, they were shown that there was no gun inside the poor employee’s sling bag.

But one wonders what they wrote in their complaint vs. the minority bloc because the police desk refused to show a copy of the complaint filed. Was it self-incriminating by police standards?

But be that as it may, there must be a hint of truth to Mr. Erfe-Mejia’s hallucination. He must have actually snapped because of the tremendous pressure and guilt he and his cohorts have been carrying throughout the time they refused to pass the annual budget.

Being politicians, they knew how much suffering they brought to thousands of Dagupeños when they refused to pass the P1.3 annual budget. They knew they have deprived hundreds of city hall employees of their increases in salaries while hundreds more lost their monthly pay for since January 1, 2023.  They knew they deprived thousands of students of their scholarships. They knew they deprived hundreds of desperate sick residents of free diagnostic medical services and medicines for over 13 months!

Knowing and aware of the possible consequences to them, they must have become so afraid of their own shadows since. Perhaps he strongly felt that one or five or ten Dagupeños who suffered seriously on their account might consider taking the law into their hands and take revenge out of sheer desperation. Hmmm.

Mr. Erfe-Mejia’s level of fear must have really been so high that he actually believed that an unmasked hitman inside a public hall will carry out a death sentence with a handgun in front of many witnesses. Only a 5-year-old boy would believe that but Mr. Erfe-Mejia obviously believed it. He was insistent on making his suspected hitman show everything that was inside his sling bag. To his obvious dismay (or was it a deep sigh of relief?) there was not a single deadly weapon inside the bag of his suspect who was later identified as a “Mr. Manaois.”

Or did he simply think that his hallucination would be the best distraction to the voting? Either way, he lost it. What’s next? (By the way, in the spirit of transparency, may I say that Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia is my distant relative).

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