Mayor Lim’s wrong priorities

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

DAGUPAN City Mayor Lim was out of the country again for four days (his fourth since he assumed office in July 2018). He was in Estonia in Europe for his social obligation to World Jaycees as its immediate past president, hobnobbing with Jaycees’ elite. I’m told he traveled with the usual suspects, his special core group. Hmmm… is it possible that he considers his being a mayor a mere sideline to his responsibilities as Jaycees’ world past president?

Anyway, if he were around, he would have responded to the revelation of Marlyn Laguipo, DILG city director, about the true evaluation of DILG on the road clearing campaign that the mayor didn’t bother to correct.  

She told the city councilors that its’ not true that the Dagupan got a 95% rating in road clearing but only 84%. I thought she was being fully candid about the whole thing until I received a text message from a regular PUNCH reader at the about the same time she was engaging the councilors on the details of the rating.  

The reader asked – how in the world did the city government get a high rating when the sidewalk along A.B. Fernandez Ave. alone continues to be occupied by vendors and hawkers, and illegal extensions of stores? He went on to compare his observation of the level of compliance in western towns, and he attested that what he saw there was nothing close to what’s happening in Dagupan. The sidewalks of the western towns’ main commercial districts have been cleared completely of the usual number of vendors and extensions of stores.

Given the report, something tells me, Ms. Laguipo was not fully candid about the situation in the city after all. But in fairness to her, it was not she who evaluated Dagupan and gave the 95% rating. The civil society appointed by the city mayor was behind the 95% rating. The streets market area alone remains completely untouched from day 1 of the clearing operations. Ms. Laguipo was certainly being overly generous at 84%! She should take a walk in those areas and see for herself whether her movements are restricted by man-made illegal obstructions.

Here’s a friendly advice to Mr. Lim and POSO chief Rob Erfe-Mejia: Take note that residents are no longer easily taken by usual motherhood statements. The official statistics are now validated by what residents see.

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CONSISTENT WITH MISSING SGLG AWARD.  Something appeared ominous about the correction of the DILG’s road-clearing rating. The correction appears to be consistent with the DILG’s decision not to make Dagupan an awardee of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) this year, after being a consistent awardee for the past 3 years under the stewardship of Mayor Belen Fernandez.

It’s worrisome today to see Mayor Lim prefer spending more time gallivanting  overseas for and with his fellow Jaycees, while the city’s affairs are being managed by his “volunteers.” And it seems likely that since he’s not into working closely with his constituents, in addition to his likely treating the annual State of the City address as an unimportant event in governance like how he regarded his first 100 days report.  He has also been in the habit of giving credit to his volunteers, not to the city officials working with him. But will he make them accountable for not doing enough? Tsk-tsk. 

In fact, after a year waiting for him to make good on his campaign promises, we’ve not heard of anything done to alleviate the plight of city’s senior citizens, public schools, youths, consumers, business establishments, barangays. So far, it’s been about spending for anything aesthetic “imaging” at the city plaza and street lights for the illusion that all’s well in the city. (Incidentally, why are workers of Magic Group doing the installation of the lights around the city and the bridges?). Did Magic participate in the bidding for the implementation of the project? Or was there a bidding at all? Hmmm. 

Paging DILG City Director Ms. Laguipo, don’t  you sense an irregularity there?

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MUCH AWAITED REPORT. Finally, the city can expect an output from the Dagupan City Flood Mitigation Commission. I gather from the website of Mayor Brian Lim, the first report will be submitted this month.

It’d be interesting to see what the city plans in the light of grim predictions by scientists on the impact of climate change on Asian cities, expected severe flooding in coastal towns and cities. (Hopefully, city hall’s information office go out of its way to provide local media copies and a summary of the highlights of the report for a change.)

The post did not indicate the parameters of the report. No preview from the mayor. So abangan!

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COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS. The clarification and statement of Provincial Health Officer anent the ASF issue and the impact of the ASF scare on the local economy should be taken to heart.

First, she belied the common belief that eating pork that was infected with ASF would make one sick of ASF too. She flatly denied that a case involving persons that ate pork were infected with ASF. In fact, she stressed there is no case in the world where such a situation existed. 

Second, pigs were culled and executed not because they will do harm to humans but to protect the local hog industry. The ASF is deadly to hogs, period. Government had to act before the hog industry where many backyard growers have large stakes in it is wiped out.

So, just enjoy the pork… and count our blessings that our hog industry continues to be sustainable.

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