By Leonardo Micua

 

IF the honorable provincial board members of Pangasinan do not see signs of  graft in the contract between the province with an online media group in Baguio City, well, I do.

The contract in the amount of P11.88 million yearly or P999,000 a month, signed  last year by Gov. Mon-mon Guico and the Regional News Group or RNG Luzon, Inc.. is being renewed for another year.

After hearing the head of the Provincial Information and Media Relations Office, Dhobie de Guzman shed light on the contract and the operation of the company, the board instantly passed a resolution authorizing Gov. Guico to sign a renewed contract with RNG Luzon, Inc. without much ado.

Note: De Guzman was the founding president and a former Chief Executive Officer of RNG Luzon Inc. whose office is located in Baguio City, and claimed he already divested his interests in the company soon after he became head of the Pangasinan PIMRO.

After his confirmation as PIMPRO head last year, De Guzman recommended to Gov. Mon-mon to sign a contract with RNG Luzon Inc. in mid 2023 to promote the tourism sites of Pangasinan, a mandate of PIMPRO.

That smacks of a conflict of interest and a loss of sense of delicadeza acting on RNG’s behalf.

Board Member Jerry Agerico Rosario was right when he asked De Guzman if he thought that the contracted amount of close to P12 million per year isn’t too much for an online media promotion on the tourism potential of Pangasinan. Rosario candidly admitted that it was only his first time to hear the name RNG Luzon Inc. having a contract running with Pangasinan.

Anyway, BM Rosario asked the contractor through PIMRO Dhobie to submit a performance matrix to find out if it was really effective in promoting Pangasinan.

According to De Guzman, RNG produces a 30-minute travel show program “Ganda Mo Pangasinan” which it uploads on social media for use by any TV outfit for free, adding that it has an existing free-to-air digital TV covering Northern  Luzon and the Cordilleras with links to cable companies in Baguio and Pampanga. He was RNG’s marketing man.

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Upon his return, double Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo, will be showered not only by flowers and confetti but by up to P150 million cash and non-cash benefits and other perks and benefits that he will enjoy for a lifetime, plus adulation of more than 112 million Filipinos;

 For gifting the Philippines with two gold medals in a row in a single Olympic, the 24-year-old Yulo is now considered as the best Filipino athlete of all times and possibly for more generations to come.

 A half Pangasinense, his dear mother Angelica Poquiz is from Malasiqui while Caloy was born and grew up in a busy neighborhood in Malate, Manila, stood taller in his  4”11’ diminutive height than taller medalists from Israel, Armenia, and Great Britain who shared the podium with him.

It was a distinct honor for the Filipinos to see the national  flag being hoisted twice above the rest, two days in between,  while the tune of the Philippine national anthem was being played in the background when Yulo just got his gold medals. 

 To be feted as a returning hero from the quadrennial meet, Caloy will be richly rewarded for bringing honor and glory to the Philippines no other Filipino Olympians ever did.

 Caloy, and earlier Hidilyn, had just proven that the Philippines need not import talents to win Olympic gold medals because our homegrown talents raised in the farms and even in grimy neighborhoods are aplenty and can do it better if given the proper funding and motivation, coaching, training, incentives and, yes, understanding and tender loving care.

 The  government and sports patrons are spending much on basketball, where height is might, and little or no attention is given to other sporting fields such as gymnastics, weightlifting and boxing, all considered veritable gold mines for any athlete competing in the Olympic Games.

 At only 24 years old, Yulo will be 28 years old in 2028 when the Olympic Games changed venue to Los Angeles, California in USA, and will be a cinch to again don the national uniform to win more gold medals for the motherland.

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