Punchline
Reclaiming Tondaligan Park for the people
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
Now that Dagupan Mayor Al Fernandez is back in the driver’s seat, and is now likely keen on shaping a legacy that Dagupenos will long remember, I certainly hope he will consider the restoration of the natural beauty of Tondaligan Park (Blue Beach) high on his priority action plan!
While an efficient scandal-free governance should be on top of his list, the transformation of Tondaligan Park finally into a prime tourist destination that the Dagupenos can truly be proud of will long be remembered by generations.
For too long, it’s no secret that political leaders in the city have been held hostage by the shed owners who have literally claimed some proprietorship over the beach. They did nothing to stop the shed-owners from defacing the park and use the beach view solely for their commercial activities, partly perhaps because they did not have the imagination nor the political will to do what is right and proper for Tondaligan.
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Anyone who goes there can easily see that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason in everything in Tondaligan Park today. It’s chaotic out there…no zoning…no sanitary regulations and it’s every man for himself for a quick buck.
What started as simple sheds 30 years ago were converted into shanties and have since completely blocked the beach view from the main street. Visitors today end up having to ask shed-owners’ permission to allow them access to the beach by passing through their shed-cum-squatter shanties.
It didn’t take long for buildings and clubhouses of associations and organizations to follow suit and started constructing along the park’s stretch, making them stick out like sore thumbs in what was thought to be a leisure area.
Squatters have mushroomed all over the place, from the Muslim village to the restaurant row making the place a breeding place for petty criminals, pimps and drug dealers.
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It’s time to have a full-blown development plan for Tondaligan Park.
Simply talking about the need to regulate the shed-owners is like applying band-aid on a person afflicted with cancer. A wrong solution to a major problem. What we need is a vision that can be supported by a well-studied plan, resources and above all, political will.
It would be well for Mayor Al to engage and work with the city’s architects’ association. Our architects, in turn, can give back to the city by responding quickly pro bono in developing and presenting various concepts of a new Tondaligan Park given guidelines from the city’s planning office.
Hopefully, the basic set of guidelines will include:
1. The complete liberation of the beachfront from the shed owners. Instead, clusters of uniformly designed permanent kiosks be constructed inside the park but away from the beachfront.
2. The establishment of a zoning plan in the park for restaurants and souvenir shops, parks, i.e., with specific mandate that henceforth the construction of clubhouses and government offices inside the park be prohibited. (A 5-year plan for the subsequent transfer and demolition of all existing clubhouses, government offices and commercial buildings over a three-year period will be a step in the right direction).
3. The greening of the park.
4. The establishment of an efficient sanitation /sewage system.
5. Closure of the nearby dumpsite.
6. The absolute banning of squatters in the park.
I do hope Mayor Al and City Administrator Alvin will consider this a desirable legacy…and work on it.
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STOP THE LANDGRABBERS. The unabated racketeering that started during the Lim administration has to stop!
The PUNCH lends its full support to the decision of Mayor Al to finally stand firmly in the way of the opportunistic rich and influential families of the past Lim Administration who thought they could become owners of parcels of foreshore and public lands along the beaches of Tondaligan Park, especially in Bonuan Binloc, literally just for a song.
And frankly, I see no reason why he should even worry about the resistance of these greedy persons and families who had all the intention of grabbing public lands right under the city government’s noses. These persons knew fully well that they were gambling when they were told that the way to claim ownership is merely to present tax declarations on their claims.
Well, with Mr. Benjie Lim’s unexpected and “untimely” exit, they lost and should not think they are still entitled to those public lands.
I dare the “tax declaration” holder to contest the action of the mayor, go to court so he/she will expose himself or herself as the person who tried to defraud the government and fool the rest of us in broad daylight but was stopped. People would be interested to know who among the business cronies and friends of former Mayor Benjie will have the gall to fight for what was patently illegal from the very beginning!
With deep apologies to our Lord Jesus, allow me to paraphrase his bidding to the crowd, this time to the prospective landgrabbers – Let he/she who plotted to illegally own a part of the beach, file the first suit.
Keep going Mayor Al, don’t look back!
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LUCKY TOWN. Rosales Mayor Ricardo Revita must have done something good in his childhood.
In one fell swoop, his once sleepy town is set to reap a whirlwind of economic bonanza with the decision of SM to erect its first mall in Pangasinan in his town and of TESDA to set up its training facilities there as well to serve the client base in that district.
Those two developments are enough to make the city mayors in the province to salivate and ponder each night where they went wrong as to be ignored by the two.
If Dagupan and San Carlos don’t watch out, they will be eating the dust of Urdaneta and Rosales who’ll blaze the trail in no time.
Who says small-time towns cannot ever be biggies?
(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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