By Ermin Garcia Jr.  

 

ONE cannot but to hand it to the 7 epaLiFes.

They consistently, wittingly or unwittingly, manifest their ignorance about parliamentary rules and laws practically every week without fail! The most recent was their decision to cut the 2024 supplementary budget by 73%.

They want Dagupeños to believe that they are doing the city a favor by rejecting the rest so they can “study” the proposed activities further! What were the series of committee hearings about? Just a chance to wear their barkada uniforms? They, naturally, did not realize that they not only exposed themselves to be completely ignorant of the difference between the annual budget and a supplementary budget, but even gleefully showed their hypocrisy by claiming credit for the approval of the budget for city hall employees  after rejecting their  pleas for the past two years!

At this point, it can already be said they earned their notoriety in Dagupan City’s history.

The names of the set of the most ignorant, pretentious, hypocritical councilors of Dagupan City: Red Erfe-Mejia, Alfie Fernandez, Celia Chua-Lim, Alvin Coquia, Irene Lim-Acosta and Marilou Fernandez, should be emblazoned on the sanggunian’s doors leading to the comfort rooms.

Their documented achievements so far:

1. They crafted internal rules patterned after their sets of uniforms voting as one, making all committee memberships exclusively reserved for them, violating provisions in the Local Government Code in the process.
2. They walked out on the city mayor in the middle of her speech and humiliated the mayor’s office by requiring her to personally defend the 2023 and 2024 annual budgets.
3. They rejected the 2023 annual budget and crafted their own with a measly fund good for a third-class municipality to prevent the city government from functioning effectively.
4. They earned their first rebuke from the DBM for passing a budget deemed as “Inoperative in its entirety.”
5. They refused to approve minutes of regular sessions that showed they failed in their political agenda.
6. They cussed, cursed the vice mayor and walked out when they disagreed with the latter’s ruling. Three were indicted.
7. One justified shouting “putang ina mo” during a regular session as an expression defended by the freedom of speech.
8. They filed a petition in court to declare the 2023 annual budget as illegally passed. They insisted that a budget must be passed by a “qualified majority,” not by a simple majority. Translation: Even if some members of their epaLifes are absent, their vote should still be considered under their “qualified majority” vote rule. Court denied their silly petition.
9. They rejected the fully funded DOH Mother and child Hospital because the DOH accepted the land donation for it from Mayor Belen’s brother.
10. They rejected the proposed 2022, 2023 and 2024 supplementary budgets to make city hall employees suffer and Mayor Belen should be blamed for it.
11. They rejected funds for long overdue infrastructure, education and health programs to diminish positive impact of the Belen Fernandez administration.

Did I miss out others?

Let’s reserve the title ‘Most Corrupt City Administration’ to the Brian Lima administration, whose period was the rallying point of the 7 epaLiFes: to make sure the Belen Fernandez administration fails and will not outshine their boss’ administration

I leave the list of fraudulent transactions committed by the Lim administration to Mayor Belen and COA to give the litany of documented corruption.

I pray Mayor Belen will have the courage to file all the criminal cases to serve as a lesson to all would-be corrupt personnel under her and future administrations.

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STILL EXPECT THE WORST. PAG-ASA says the worst is over for us in Pangasinan. It will be cooler in June and during the ‘Ber’ months!

That said, I dare say the worst is yet to happen to us. La Niña is expected to set in on June.  Images on social media about the totally unexpected killer flooding that hit Dubai, that smart city in United Arab Emirates and the popular place for luxury shopping. The residents got the biggest shock of their lives!

Let us not forget that millions of volumes of ice blocks in the Arctic Ocean are melting every day due to climate change, resulting in high evaporation that forms large rain clouds around the world. It is these rain clouds that threaten to explode into deadly typhoons this year. 

Recall the series of typhoons that inundated towns and cities in Pangasinan in the last decade, then imagine the combined force of these falling on us in one blow this year.

So, waste no time In heeding the advice of our ‘Out of the Fire’ columnist Gonz Duque last week, to prepare for the worst.

Meanwhile, the whiners and gripers over the inconvenience they suffered from the elevation of the drainage system and road in major areas in Dagupan should thank their stars that the construction of these were completed in time to minimize impact of heavy flooding expected in their areas.

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STOP THE SINOPHOBIA. The air of Sinophobia that’s gathering steam in many communities, is most unfair if not tragic.

Suddenly, the word “Chinese” is made to refer to an individual from China or with Chinese DNA, who’s heartless, abusive, an opportunist who can’t be trusted, with a criminal mind, all because of reported aggression of the   Chinese Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea.

While Filipinos do have the right to be angry with the way the People’s Republic of China government has been conducting itself, our issue should be with the PROC, not with the “Chinese.”

Imagine Americans, Europeans, etc. discrediting and labeling Filipinos as cheating, unreliable and untrustworthy because they hate our government or leaders.

We have thousands of Chinoys in all our towns and cities worthy of our respect. They help our local and national economy. There are legit Chinese companies in our country that have long established their worthiness and credibility as business establishments in the country.

We all have many Chinoy friends who don’t deserve to be chided being “Chinese” under the negative context of the territorial claims in the WPS. Anyone who does this is obviously a gullible person with no appreciation of the issues and that triggered the violence in the WPS.

Sinophobia must stop for our own self-respect.

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