Think about it
All these festivals are good for nothing if . . .
By Jun Velasco
WE were locked in a lively exchange over how and why a modernizing city could be so crazy over a fleshy aquatic animal called bangus.
Can’t you, Dagupan people, come up with something better, say, larger than life, or something more meaningful?
A scholar-friend must have found the mestisang bangus too trifling or bland to advertise the city of Joe de Venecia and Al Fernandez asked us that.
When we said Benjie Lim put Dagupan in the world map because of the bangus, the hard-to-please intellectual opined that the city deserved something more, one that would instantly arrest the feeling, say, an earth-shaking symbol . . . like what? He couldn’t come up with any, so we went blank.
He said Dagupan is not even in a position to produce millions of pesos worth of bangus for domestic use alone. So what good in Dagupenos’ economic life would it do?
To further crush our spirit, the academe guy said “your local bangus can’t even hold a candle to the Saranggani bangus. True or false, we got flat footed.
The subject should be by now academic because bangus fest is over, and the city has to move on, what with a few issues hounding it, the much debated grand opening of the Pl.2 billion Dawel-Lucao roadline, the colossal robbery by few smart alecks on prize public lots at the 72-hectare Tondaligan Ferdinand and other local issues.
The conversation proved something. Our local leaders like Mayor Al Fernandez and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez could blow up a molehill of bangus to a mountain, figuratively. Observers say the grand hoopla came straight from Belen’s management skills, with boss Al simply swaying the baton. Great working team the duo?
Let’s wait how the duet would go in 20l0 because Belen is eyeing the mayorship even if Al’s son Alvin or nephew Michael is looking. And there’s at the other door topnotch lady councilor Farah Decano who has nothing more to prove in the art of vote getting, whether Dagupan or national. Yes, just like Michael, whose handsome picture you see everywhere after besting his rival so easily in the Philippine Councilors Leaque’s elections.
And while we are at it in the backyard, how would we read Al’s careful moves in graduating Congressman Joe de Venecia’s 4th district turf? For one thing, the NBN-ZTE hero Joey de Venecia has confided his eyes are not in Congress but in the senate, if the surveys would land him the top five…..
But where are we?
Ah, the enigmatic bangus, by way of our leaders’ creative imagination, has been thrust into the world limelight because they, our leaders and people —Dagupeños — have what it takes when they really put their minds and hearts and moneys to it. But, as we have suggested time and again, please sustain the gains. Bangus Fest was a booming success in spite of the rain that almost got everyone wet.
In the province’s Pistay Dayat, meanwhile, we have Manong Resty Basa on its humble origin under Governor Paco Duque’s time yet. Not very many know that Gons’ erpat started this entire sea craze, followed by Mayor Libring Reyna who didn’t want Dagupan left out. It started as a simple thanksgiving rites, says Manong Resty. The sea— Lingayen Gulf and the South China Sea — has given Pangasinan so much bounty, multiple blessings, we ought to take care of it. But what’s going on? Fish kill is on the rise. Boy Rayos would call us in the wee hours of the morning to deplore blast fishing in Tondaligan. Our friend, Mayor Nestor Pulido of Anda has just declared total war against fish kill. Ditto with Mayor Sammy Rosario.
To our most distinguished cumpadre, Guv’nor Spines, please make Pulido’s move a nationwide drive. Hang the fish killers.
Or else all this sea fest and bangus celebrations are good for nothing.
(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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