Finally, a community project in Dagupan?

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE Brian Lim administration is finally set to initiate its first community project in the city since it took over from the Belen Fernandez administration last year.

For what? Make a guess but allow me to help with some clues: Everyone in the city will receive it and will use it on demand; it will let people remember the resident during calamity, particularly during election and campaign period to qualify for cash and food assistance.

That’s all the benefit I can think of because the community project is a colored ID for Dagupan City residents (as if Dagupeños sorely lack IDs to prove that they are alive, who they are and where they live)!!! God knows what good will another ID serve community’s welfare.  Can it be to show that Dagupeños are a special class of people because its residents have their own special IDs? Duh?

Who would ask for a Dagupan ID for a purpose in the city?? The ATM machines? The jeepney, bus, UV Express drivers? The restaurant waiters? The store clerks? The market vendors? Gas attendants?

POSO? City police? For the enforcement of the number-coding of vehicles in the city? For that purpose, doesn’t the driver’s license or IDs of passenger indicate residence of the motorist?

And who would ask for special ID outside of Dagupan City? Mayors, barangay, police officials of cities and towns in Pangasinan? For what? So Dagupeños will get VIP service? Perish the thought.

Then there’s the National ID (NI) whose purpose is to establish one permanent record of the citizen. Does the city hall believe the NI will not serve the city’s purpose?

I believe here’s a more plausible explanation and purpose: A plastic-ID maker must have told Mr. Lim or FOB (Friends of the Boss) how cheap it would cost the city government to produce ID cards and still provide a sizeable kickback for the ‘boys and girls’.

So let’s wait for the still unknown significant benefits from the ‘boys and girls’ in Sangguniang Panlungsod who are expected to pass the ordinance authorizing the production and issuance of that special ID racket!

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REINFORCING FACE-TO-FACE EDUCATION. Under the new normal for education, the provincial government and provincial DepEd officials should consider allowing the establishment of supervised virtual teaching of school children by specially trained tutors/adults (from among parents) to supervise three classmates in one dedicated room equipped with a TV or radio.

 This would be a practical approach to adapt to the new normal in education since working parents do not have the luxury of time to supervise their children’s education during the day. It simply is not possible to expect schoolchildren (Grade 1 to 6) to learn their lessons at home from TV or radio without close supervision by a trained adult.

 The idea is to continue to reinforce a face-to-face teaching environment with restrictions in place. DepEd can set the guidelines.

 The concept will also allow for new jobs or added income for parents based on regulated schedule of fees established by the local government.

 Meanwhile, town and city governments would do well to discuss negotiated rates with internet service providers to serve both the schools and households whose children need daily access to internet for their virtual class lessons.

 At a certain point, local governments must study how it can fully or partially subsidize internet service in their towns or provide children in their towns internet cards for their regular access.

 Woe to the town or barangay without access to internet while others can.

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USELESS CHECKPOINTS. All towns and cities in Pangasinan have withdrawn checkpoints for the COVID-19 pandemic except in Dagupan City that continues to maintain checkpoints on the borders of the city.

Will the Dagupan officials at the city hall, police and health office please restate the purpose for delaying travel of motorists when the city is already under Modified General Community Quarantine?

If the purpose is merely to show that the city government is busy, then it is achieving the opposite effect. People see the checkpoints as a waste of resources under the lax quarantine level.  Isn’t anyone in city hall doing even some small thinking? If it’s too much to expect of the mayor, isn’t the city administrator up to the job of how to utilize scarce resources for better results?

A checkpoint to monitor movements of hogs because of the African Swine Fever epidemic and/or to deter movements of guns-for-hire or stolen motorcycles, is clearly for a purpose with benefit. But a checkpoint to stop COVID-19 contagion is already redundant since establishments are doing thermal checking.

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RESTORE DIGNITY OF POSTS. Legislators in the province, particularly municipal and city councils, should consider a transition to the new normal with a visible, positive change in image: for men to wear barong while women wear short semi-formal attire during regular and special sessions, just like the legislators did before martial law. (The provincial board members are still keeping the tradition).

 Over the past 40 years to date, councilors attend the regular sessions in their most casual attire (jeans, sports shirts and shoes) like they were just attending a barangay club meeting. It is not the kind of dress code for men and women elected to attend to the local government’s affairs that entitle them to attach the title “Honorable” to their names. 

 Respectable dress code is a way of respecting their mandate as duly elected representatives of the people. If they dress up to attend social occasions as a sign of respect to the hosts, with more reason they should dress properly as a sign of respect for the people who elected them. 

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