Usec. Villar rides again!

By Ermin F. Garcia Jr.

Usec. Bebot Villar is like a square peg in a round hole in the GMA government.

He would have been the first senior GMA official to resign if he had not been prevailed upon to stay on by his direct boss, President Arroyo. But unlike the resignation sought by the group of ex-cabinet officials to see GMA abandoned, Usec. Bebot’s unilateral resignation would have been the first resignation out of sheer loyalty to his Bosswoman not as a fall-out from the NBN-ZTE scandal.

Unlike other cabinet officials who refuse to resign even after being tagged for serious anomalies in their agencies, invoking the trite and overused “I serve under the pleasure of the President,” Usec. Bebot would  not be seen clinging to his post kapit-tuko.

He has demonstrated that he will promptly tender his resignation the minute he sees his continued service would prove to be a liability to his Bosswoman’s welfare.  

Yet, in his case, his foiled resignation was about being a liability, not as a crook, but as an efficient and upright official.  He felt he ought to resign because some political bigwigs have threatened to badger his Bosswoman all because he has stepped on their toes while performing his task! For Usec. Bebot, he strongly felt his embattled Bosswoman did not deserve a needless political brushfire from ill-mouthed allies at this time while she fights off a snowballing clamor for her own resignation.

Truly laudable and noble.

Perhaps if only DOTC Sec. Leandro Mendoza, ex-Comelec Chairman Ben Abalos, ex-NEDA chairman Romy Neri, DENR Sec. Lito Atienza and PNP chief Avelino Razon were of the Usec’s mold, the NBN-ZTE scandal would not be here today to hound their Bosswoman.

But they are not, so GMA is being called on to resign. She should.

Usec. Bebot, on the other should stay in his post. He’s one Pangasinense who’s doing his kabaleyans (and yes, GMA!) proud.

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THOSE BEACH LAND-GRABBERS. Don’t look now but there is a mad rush for premium beach land along the Lingayen Gulf coastline.

So far, only the governments of Dagupan and Lingayen have started to confront the double-headed monsters that sit on their beaches. And if the situations prevailing in these two beaches are any indication, the era of the poor wretched fisher folk squatting on these lands is over. The rich and famous politicians and businessmen have taken over and have since made it a lucrative racket among themselves.

I can only wonder what’s the situation like in the towns of San Fabian and Binmaley. Will Mayors Jaming Libunao (San Fabian) and Sammy Rosario (Binmaley) soon take the cudgels for the future of eco-tourism in their towns as well? 

The investigation and inventory of tax declaration certificates in Dagupan and Lingayen have so far yielded names of who’s who here and in other cities. None of the TDC holders is known to belong to families who live below the poverty line.

This is definitely a microcosm of national thievery that goes unabated in the country where only the small fries get jailed. I can only wonder how many and who among the beach land-grabbers will eventually be sent to jail for violating our laws.

I can only pray that the present crop of legal officers of these communities now see that theirs is the opportunity to show that no one can violate their laws and ordinances with impunity and get away with it, under their watch. 

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LADIES AS MEDIA-YOLA “BAGMEN”. Just as we expected, a number of the practitioners belonging to one faction of the Pangasinan PNP Press Corps were reportedly quick to deny that they are not, and were never part of the lucrative media-yola (media payola) in the province. In fact, some insist there is no such thing as media-yola! Yeah, right.

But our PUNCH source in the jueteng circle has identified who the favorite “bagmen” of the jueteng financiers are without flinching.  Our source said the “bagmen” are, in fact, two popular ladies from this faction of the PNP Press Corps’ ranks, sin duda!  (Need I say that my source’s integrity was bolstered by the recent series of raids on jueteng joints in the province by elements of the PNP regional office?).

So like  in the NBN-ZTE deal where pay-offs were clearly made but denied by the principal characters, the police raids validated what everyone in the press corps knew but flatly denied –  that media-yola was and had been paid out regularly in the past.

There can only be no media-yola if there is no jueteng just as there can be no flooding if there is no rain!  

Ergo, if jueteng has always existed, then the media-yola “bag (wo)men” must have had it so good for themselves and many of our colleagues, who were just too willing to be corrupted, for a long time now. But as in every case of corruption, there will always be a payback time. To those who’ve had a taste of  jueteng’s regular gravy but never acted as the evil “bagmen”, it’s best they give up the “habit” now before it’s too late and will soon be completely beyond redemption. 

But then again, yes, I could be wrong. If the members of the press corps can come forward and point to the real “bagmen”, then redemption can be theirs. Simply staying in the denial-mode, daring others instead to present “solid evidence”, doesn’t help their cause one bit.

Nowadays denial comes cheap when the truth is known to most. See how Malacañang fares with the public today.

(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/
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