Punchline
The archbishop’s “marked” money
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
It was not about the classic case of “putting money where your mouth is” but rather putting it in someone else’s to help prove a point. And I must say, What Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz did for his diocese is quite a precedent – providing the local police the wherewithal to combat distribution of illegal drugs! Most, if not all, bishops I know were taught to accept donation regardless of the source, but donating for a public cause is unheard of.
When most members of the laity would content themselves paying lip service to the losing battle against the druglords, Archbishop Cruz did not have to think twice to up the ante, to walk the talk! When he gave the complaining cops the P50,000 as start-up to enable them to pursue buy-bust entrapment operations, I could have heard him end his unique sermon with “Put up or shut up.” (The police complained about the lack or the absence of cash needed for buy-bust operations).
Also, I guess he realizes how truly helpless and frustrating the situation is for him and the community knowing that druglords, pushers and their police protectors attend church services with their families and yet there’s absolutely nothing he can do to expose them for their evil deeds. And, he reckoned that if the bad guys don’t listen to Sunday sermons from the pulpit surely they will pay homage to the color of money.
But Dagupan police Chief Sonny Verzosa and his men better be warned. They must make sure to put it to good use or suffer the consequences of eternal damnation. The archbishop’s money is “marked” money. Written invisibly on those bills read: “This is God’s property. Don’t give it to the devil.”
Three cheers for Archbishop Cruz! I’m sure the P50,000 will go a long way in saving families from the clutches of the druglords.
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But unfortunately for him, Archbishop Cruz cannot apply the same formula in his endless and seeming futile war against illegal gambling. He would be damned if he gives the police P50,000 to eradicate jueteng. Why so?
The cops would either think it’s part of the weekly payola or they would wisely invest it in the gambling lord, as in “tapat”. The P50,000 investment could earn P300,000 a day (3 draws a day)!
His marked P50,000 in this case would go a long way in burying himself alive.
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TRABAHO LANG, WALANG PERSONALAN. Regional Trial Court Judge Robert Rudio of Branch 40 in Dagupan City must be having sleepless nights these days. His friend and former colleague, George Mejia, now Dagupan City’s Legal Officer, is hounding him.
The judge’s admission that he owns the two-storey house built inside a “public land” but which the Task Force on Squatting and Urban Resettlement claims to be part of the Tondaligan Park, has put him in a very precarious position.
I’m no lawyer but my common sense tells me that whether or not it was built on a public land or not gives rise to fundamental legal issues that could very well prejudice his standing as a judge.
The records of the city show that the house was built sans a building permit, that notices were sent to him about his violation, worse, he had no ECC to show he was cleared to build on the land in question. His disposition to simply refer questions about the legality of his actions to another lawyer, himself listed as squatter, is not helping him.
I’m afraid the Supreme Court will soon be asking him to explain, being presumed to be like “Caesar’s wife”, how and why he got himself in such a mess.
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SANITATION CODE. The ballyhooed omnibus sanitation code of Dagupan City is facing its first litmus test.
If the city hall cannot compel the Dagupan District Jail to comply strictly with the provisions of the code, it cannot hope to have the moral authority to require strict compliance from residents and business establishments in the area. If it cannot enforce the code, then the city can kiss Tondaligan area goodbye as a tourist destination.
The code requires houses and stores to construct individual septic tanks that work! This is precisely the problem of the district jail – it does not have a septic tank that works. For years, the jail has been spewing wastes from the facility’s septic system direct to the beach water!
The City Environment and Natural Resources Office has proven its inutility by failing to cite the district jail for polluting the sea. The city tourism officer finds nothing wrong with the waste spilling out to the beach and her heart bleeds for the jail management. That leaves the city health officer to prove that the sanitation code will make the difference for the city and protect the resident’s health and welfare.
Will Dr. Leonard Carbonell, city health officer, rise to the challenge? Or will he choose to join the ranks of inutile?
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