Tradpol or astute JdV?

By Gerry Garcia

CONVERSION of the old Pantal road starting from Sitio Patalan in the west into a riverside boulevard certainly would be  a welcome change from a previous stand of City Hall to build a riverside boulevard extending  from Star Plaza Hotel  westward which raised objections from affected land owners.

Upgrading the old road by its conversion into a well lit boulevard could also be a positive step towards exploiting the potentials of a tourist-oriented plan to establish a tri-ferry service system linking the cities of Alaminos and Dagupan in Pangasinan and San Fernando in La Union. The new boulevard, with its entry point in Patalan from the near-completed Dawel-Pantal-Lucao diversion road, would end up at the eastern foot of the Quintos Bridge from where the Star Plaza Hotel, this city’s tourist land-mark, stands a few hundred meters away.

The three cities’ support for  this first ever tri-Ferry service across the Lingayen Gulf will soon be formalized by the signing  of a memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by the 3 city Mayors: Al Fernandez of Dagupan City; Hernani Braganza of Alaminos City and Pablo Ortega of San Fernando City sometime in March.

This region’s Department of Tourism, which is behind the 3-city project, sees the resultant promotion and subsequent stimulation of tourist traffic in the region.

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Some six years ago when JdV was on his 3rd term as Speaker of the House, he was a doting adviser in exultant praise of PGMA: Gloria is brilliant. She has a strong political will. She is a God-fearing, church-going lady. There’s no need to change her!

Now suspecting himself to be a victim of back-stabbing, JdV minces no word: Gloria has lost her moral authority to govern. She must step down!

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Now approaching 70, Joe has held on to the Speakership for the fifth  unfortunate time, but still remains avid in his advocacy of charter amendment, not exactly change, and the shift to the parliamentary and federal form of government with a unicameral legislature or a regionally elected Senate.

There’s a revealing face about the man, especially evident in a past interview with Graphic Magazine Editor Tony S. Lopez to whom he had said: I reiterate that I long for no office beyond the Speakership — which my peers have graciously awarded repeatedly. I have no more ambition for higher political office. I’ll not be running for President anymore and — I have absolutely no plan to seek the office of Prime Minister even if the Constitutional amendments could be completed and ratified before 2010.

All I want in my public career was to be a good Speaker.

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Fellow columnist Jun V has just texted me about Nonong Quezon Jr’s column in the PDI issue of last Thursday in which Nonong allegedly wrote about  PGMA’s “selling the Republic to China!”

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