By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE epaLIFE team led by the Lim mother (Celia) – son (Brian) – daughter (Irene) seeking elective posts in Dagupan City is truly living up to its name as a barkada in this campaign. See its members strut their wares laced with their usual arrogance and impertinent juvenile images of themselves. Plain unliperwisyo.

It is for this reason that I dare give this stern warning to Dagupeños who care to see their lives uplifted with long overdue positive progress without obstructionism for vile political ends.

Here are three scenarios with the epaLIFE interrupting city life.

1. Mother Celia as mayor and son Brian elected as vice mayor.  There are political dynasties today across the country that serve with noble ideas and there are dynasties that choke the life of the communities with rampant, unabated corruption.
   Dagupan has seen how corruption reared its ugly head under a Brian administration. With Celia as a willing mayor, who as councilor, was unable to contain and check her fellow epaLIFE councilors from creating havoc in the city.

A Celia-Brian administration will surely lead the city to its darkest period yet.

1. Brian as vice mayor to Mayor Belen Fernandez will see the continuation of manipulation of legislative measures by a Belen administration. Obstructionism that the epaLIFE barkada launched to discredit the Belen administration in the last two years will remain the benchmark of legislation in the city in the next 3 years.
2. The return of epaLIFE councilors as majority in the city council under a Celia or Belen administration will surely further reinforce their belief that Dagupeños support their insolence as payback for the defeat of mother Celia and/or son Brian.  Blocking of annual and supplemental budgets will continue if only to paralyze the city government’s operations.

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BARKADA POLITICS. It’s truly amazing if not completely dumbfounding, to see how all members of the epaLIFE barkada, have kept to themselves, just playing out their idiotic dances on Tiktok in their vain attempt to make Dagupeños forget what they did to Dagupan.

They want Dagupeños to forget that what they did was almost criminal when they consistently tried to block the annual and supplemental budgets for the city, that they celebrated when they succeeded not once, but twice, in leaving the city government operating with reenacted budgets.  And when they failed to block the 2025 budget, they had the gall to file a case in court to have the passage of budget as illegal. Mercifully, the court dismissed their petition.

Worse, to cover up their zero work as legislators, they even resorted to plagiarizing drafts submitted by the minority. Pathetic.

Aaah, the epaLIFE councilors are mum about these. After all, what they did was unprecedented. No councilor in the past worth his/her name ever dared to block the passage of the annual budget, the lifeblood of governance, but they did as a barkada. 

And, as if that was not enough, they had the temerity to shelve the proposed DOH’s P150-M Mother and Child Hospital for more than two years. Then came Brian, as epaLIFE spokesman, who lied and blamed the Belen administration for the loss of the unique hospital. Tsk tsk.
Dagupeños should remember the names and faces of these local tyrants, they who tried to bring down the city while glorifying themselves in their obnoxious uniforms: Celia Lim, Red Erfe-Mejia, Alfie Fernandez, Dada Reyna-Macalanda, Irene Lim-Acosta, Alvin Coquia and Malou Fernandez – and, Brian Lim, who orchestrated the barkada’s moves from behind the scenes!

Since I started covering news in the city in 1968, I’ve never seen such irresponsible political moves like those by the epaLIFE that found nothing wrong in obstructing and sabotaging all programs of the Belen administration to serve a political agenda – to pave the way for the return of Brian as mayor, as the liberator.

So Brian’s decision to run for vice mayor, not as mayor, speaks volume. And VM Bryan Kua’s performance may also spell disaster for his political career.

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GUICO DYNASTY. The situation in Urdaneta City is also unlike other efforts to expand a political dynasty’s reach. In this case, it’s the Guico dynasty seeking full control of the resources of the Fifth District and the provincial government.

To do this, Gov. Mon-mon Guico moved to have his wife Maan elected as the city’s next mayor. It was launched with the calculated move to have Mayor Rammy Parayno suspended, and the governor succeeded. But the mayor was quick on the rebound and found brief relief from the court. But when the suspension was finally enforced, a major revamp followed in both the city’s hierarchy and in alliances in barangays.

Most recent ploy was to paint Rammy as a drug dealer by Maan’s ally (read headline story), but then came the subsequent charge by Rammy that he has become a target for permanent elimination by hired guns.

A lot is at stake in Urdaneta City being the only first-class city in Pangasinan, and therefore, is a major political trophy. No wonder Guv Mon-mon could not take his eyes off it.

Will the Urdanetans go for a powerful dynasty or sustain efforts of its native Urdanetan?

I pray that the results will be accepted without the feared violence in the aftermath.

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MORE POLICE VISIBILITY. The Pangasinan Police Provincial Office recently released its data on road accidents in the province’s highways and major streets. That it indicates an increase in the number of vehicular accidents on the province’s highways this year did not come as a surprise to anyone.  We note, however, that the PPPO had no data on the number of deaths and number of persons injured, which should alarm communities.

Nonetheless, the limited data alone should be enough to sound the alarm that the situation can get worse in weeks and months ahead if our local police stations don’t take concrete actions to minimize accidents.

For too long, both the riding public and the police viewed these data as mere facts of life that were inevitable and attributed them simply to the absence of discipline among motorists. But is it?

Forgotten in the equation is the possible strict enforcement of traffic rules since our PNP never prioritized the strict enforcement of traffic rules. What the PNP does mostly is do a post-mortem evaluation of the violations committed, attributing errors or faults to erring drivers.

And yet the solution is not difficult. Let’s take it from countries where our OFWs are located. Filipinos are seen to be very compliant in those countries. The reason is high police visibility and strict enforcement.

Police visibility means:

1. To assign one motorcycle or patrol car to park occasionally at a corner where double yellow lanes are painted, with red and blue lights flashing.
2. Setting up checkpoints in main highways to look into the overloading of public utility vehicles of passengers or trucks with goods and materials.
3. To set up mobile checkpoints to stop motorcycle riders and back riders without helmets.
4. To assign traffic enforcers to enforce safe and priority use of pedestrian lanes.

These alone will spread the word and warn motorists inside and outside the province that discipline on the road is strictly imposed in Pangasinan. 

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