By Gonzalo Duque

 

OUR school, Lyceum Northwestern University, was established by my parents, Dr. Francisco Q. Duque and Mrs. Florencia T. Duque, in the late 1960s, then a college, located at our Polyclinic Hospital fronting the Dagupan City Plaza.

When our enrollment was already growing, my parents decided to transfer the school to Amado Street in Barangay Tapuac on a land they bought, and bought adjacent  lots to make the campus bigger. The only access road then was the narrow Amado Street, and had no access then to the MacArthur Highway.

Mayor Cipriano Manaois agreed to make the road wider on condition that we help convince property owners of Amado Street to donate part of their properties to the government for the widening project, and my father did.

Consequently, businesses had flourished on Amado Street, from eateries, dormitories, refreshment parlors, boarding houses, mini-marts and others.

The private schools in Tapuac, namely Dominican School, Mother Goose, Ednas School, La Salette and others contributed to the development of Tapuac District as center of education in Dagupan. The same thing happened in Arellano Street where two other universities are located. And so is with Perez Boulevard Extension where University of Luzon can be found.

However, despite the contributions of the private schools to the economy of Dagupan, our city government—using its power to tax on the gross incomes of different educational institutions—doesn’t seem to recognize the role of private educational institutions in the city.

By the way, Amado Street was eventually named Sec. Francisco G. Duque Road, in memory of my late father.

I narrated how our small college metamorphosed into a university and helped transform Tapuac into an educational center of Dagupan because I heard members of the majority bloc in the Sangguniang Panlungsod are salivating at the prospect of putting up a city college using the P200 million allotted by the city for its scholarship program each year.

The majority city clown-cilors er.. councilors might only be day-dreaming when out of the blue, they proposed to scrap the yearly P200 million for scholarships and instead use it to put up a college to be run by the city. They think it’s that easy?

Poor guys, they don’t know simple mathematics. Their  P600 million will only be enough to buy a piece of land sufficient enough to become a campus, assuming such an area can still be found in the city today.

Speaking of land deals, their patron, Mayor Benjie Lim bought a land twenty years ago in San Jacinto for P11 million supposedly for a sanitary landfill for Dagupan. The city not only lost its money, but also the land altogether.

Then there was the MCAdore Hotel bought by the city for P50 million then sold it later by BSL at unbelievably low price.  Mukhang na-magic ang pera ng Dagupan dyan. Alam ng lahat kung sino ang kumita sa mga deals na mga yan.

Now, the majority clown-cilors are proposing a city-run college for Dagupan. Baka may “livelihood” na naman dyan?

Going by their track record and of the past mayors they supported, they cannot be called ‘stainless’. Akala mo malinis sila. Wag na sanang ibalik ang mga ito sa susunod na election.

In contrast, as a complimentary gesture to the contribution of private education in Dagupan, Mayor Belen would rather spend P200 million each year to pay for the scholarship of our city’s indigent youths in our city’s colleges and universities.

Besides, before thinking of putting up a city college in Dagupan, the city has even higher priorities: garbage, construction of the  Mother and Child Hospital, etc.

*          *          *          *

My son, Armand Ruth, informed me that for the first time, he saw  a garbage truck of Barangay Tapuac collecting our garbage in front of our house.

 The barangay used to collect garbage using “garong” and then dump the garage on Amado street, right in front of the property owned by my sister.

Today, it is totally a different story.  Tapuac has its own garbage truck and the garbage dump on Amado Street is gone. I heard that the Material Recovery Facility on Amado Street was also transferred to a private lot that is owned by Kapitan Sydney Lomboy.

Finally, motorists and commuters are relieved of the stench of nauseating garbage when they pass through Amado Street. On the MRF’s transfer, Kap Sydney said: “Wala nang mag-cocomplain dyan.”

Congratulations to Kapitan Lomboy and his secretary, Ike Palinar, both are active members of the Akarestas Walking Club headed by Chito Samson.

 Hoy, mga clown-cilors ng majority bloc. Gayahin ninyo ang brand of public service ni Kapitan Lomboy para may maganda naman akong maisulat sa inyo!

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