CITY HALL MUM ON IRREGULARITIES

THE market supervisor of Dagupan City continues to refuse to appear before the Sangguniang Panlungsod amid revelations of irregularities and criminal activities being allegedly perpetrated by his staff.

His continued refusal further earned the ire of City Councilor Teresa Coquia, chairperson  of the committee on market of the Dagupan City Sangguniang  Panlungsod (SP) who again slammed City Market Supervisor Aguedo Sta. Maria for snubbing the invitation of the SP to appear during the virtual session of the body last November 18 for the ninth time.

She expressed her dismay that despite an assurance from Councilor Celia Lim, mother of Mayor Brian Lim, that she will facilitate the appearance of Sta. Maria before the city council, he chose to ignore it, notwithstanding the resolution passed asking the mayor to direct the market supervisor to appear at the next meeting.

The resolution addressed to Mayor Lim was for him to direct Sta. Maria to appear before the SP to respond to issues aired by small-scale fish vendors in the city’s public markets, particularly, the P100 daily collection for cash tickets daily and another P100 for the privilege to continue selling at night.

When ProTempore Karlos Reyna, presiding, asked the secretariat if the SP resolution was properly received by the office of the city mayor and if a reply in the affirmative was received, the SP a cting secretary confirmed the copy of the resolution was received but no reply was received from either the office of the mayor or Sta. Maria.

In her privilege speech, Coquia said Sta. Maria who has been grandstanding on radio, has no excuse not to appear before the city council which is the proper venue for the discussion of the issues raised by the fish vendors.

She also expressed her indignation over Sta. Maria’s statement charging that the continued investigation by the councilors is politically motivated as if to justify his non-appearance.

In her most fighting moment, Coquia challenged Sta. Maria to attend the next session to repeat his allegation that the SP is merely politicking and make himself accountable for the messy situation in the public markets for the last two years.

Saying she will not stop till Sta. Maria shows himself up in the SP, Coquia said the market supervisor must explain to the people of Dagupan who are already fully aware of the irregularities in the city’s public market and deserved to be told the truth.

He called on fellow councilors not to leave the unresolved issues without any solution, lest the people of Dagupan will think that the SP is a useless body and the councilors are useless public servants.

“As long as I am here, I will not stop. Possibly when my term is up in June next year., that is the only time for me to stop. But as long as I am here, I will not give up,” Coquia said. (Leonardo Micua)

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