Punchline
Collateral damage in the city
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE contentious power struggle between the city hall and the city council in Dagupan is finally taking its toll on their hapless constituents. If one cares to look even more closely, it’s a battle royale for territorial and political control over the city between tough-talking Mayor Benjie Lim backed by some of the original cast of his former onor-onor city council and the majority party that make up today’s COO (contra-onor-onor) Dagupan City Council led by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.
The first bunch to take the hit as collateral damage is the group of tricycle franchise-holders in the city who suddenly woke up to see their franchises vanish in thin air. The first veto effectively made the many once legit trike drivers/owners face daily risks of being arrested and having their units impounded. Their situation is not being helped any by the city council that’s taking its sweet time in overriding the mayor’s veto. The second veto will further delay the processing of more applications.
From the looks of it, things are turning for the worse before they can even get better. There’s a lot of personal and official amor propio getting in the way. And where they stand today, any attempt at a dialogue that does not involve the DILG (or the court) as arbiter, will not amount to anything. The ugly game of brinksmanship has commenced and since both camps are invoking legal positions to justify their respective intransigence, we can only expect more collateral damage, more economic opportunities to go by the wayside.
Who will be their next collateral damage? The city hall workers? Market vendors? Store retailers?
Since neither Mr. Lim nor the city council is prepared to recognize each other’s mandate as defined in the local government code, then I strongly suggest they bring their issues to a head, the earlier the better. Mr. Lim upped the ante by his two successive vetoes yet these were not met by any return fire from the council. The majority in the city council should now either call the bluff by standing up and override the vetoes not a day later or meekly submit to the mayor’s veto and direction. (Since minority member Councilor Red Erfe Mejia is co-author of the vetoed ordinance I would imagine that leaves a minority of one, Councilor Brian Lim, to carry the onor-onor flag in the council. Or will Mr. Erfe-Mejia be the ultimate “abstain man”?). Either way, the contentious issues will finally be resolved and others more will be spared from being hit in this needless mad political crossfire.
Mr. Mayor is clearly bent on not being Mr. Nice Guy so the question is: can he be stopped? The next move is yours, honorable ladies and gentlemen of the council. Do your best. Or do your worst.
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P-NOY’S UNTIMELY BROADCAST. The surprise nationwide broadcast/telecast of P-Noy’s panel interview last Thursday was a big letdown to many who had expected him to demonstrate able leadership. Instead, the nation was treated to more of rehashed official alibis and explanations to acquit himself and his underlings amid all the unceasing criticisms (unfairly or otherwise) hurled at our government as a result of the Luneta bus siege.
He was better off not scheduling that panel interview since he really had nothing significant to add to the already polluted and hurting image of the country. At best, he demonstrated that he could be glib and be articulate when push comes to shove but at the same time, he just talked too much and little else. While the nation waited with bated breath about drastic measures that would put some semblance of order and direction in national governance, he rattled off his keen appreciation of military gears by citing specific indentation required of an effective bulletproof vest. I couldn’t believe I was hearing him waste our time, trying to impress us with his micro knowledge about bulletproof vests while the media panel tried to get him to describe what the country could look forward to, to feel good again about being a Filipino.
As if that was not enough, he rubbed salt on the injury to our national pride by announcing a scheduled demonstration by the Special Action Force later in the day to show what could have happened if the SAF were called to action. Did our President think for a moment that the nation would be consoled by knowing that we have the capability to be competent pala? Unbelievable. At best, the subsequent impressive SAF demonstration (again without live bullets whizzing around the heads of the operatives) only showed how he, as our President and his “On-the Job-Training” cabinet members erred fatally in their decision-making during that crunch time.
P-Noy evidently panicked and was ill-advised to have set up that unexpected media panel interview obviously in a desperate bid to exculpate himself. If there is anything that P-Noy (and future Presidents) can learn from President Marcos, it is to make time work for him, not work against time. He survived political crisis after crisis from 1964 till 1986, didn’t he?
At the rate the Aquino administration is performing, it is already making the corruption-ridden Arroyo government smelling like a rose this early.
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DROP-BALL DROPPED. Finally, we have verification that the illegal ‘drop-ball’ gambling racket in Dagupan city has been effectively terminated by the Lim administration and the police station led by PSupt. Romeo Caramat.
For reasons only known to the previous Fernandez administration, the ‘drop-ball’ gambling flourished when city hall refused to act on parents’ and barangay residents complaints against the nightly operation of the ‘drop-ball’ gambling that siphoned off precious daily allowances for food and, yes, even school kids’ daily baon. Under the guise of operating during undated yet extended barangay “fiestas”, ‘drop-ball’ had grown from petty gambling of P1 to P1,000 among bettors! Nobody even bets that much on jueteng.
Hopefully, Sr. Supt Rosueto Ricaforte, the new provincial police director, will make a difference where his predecessor Smiley PD Barba failed – to stop ‘drop-ball’ from making the province the drop-ball capital in the country, victimizing poor families making them more impoverished than what they already are. (In fairness to Mr. Barba, he scored significantly in other peace and order concerns that he can be truly proud of. Godspeed Mr. Barba!).
Meanwhile, Mayor Benjie Lim and PSupt. Caramat should take a bow and bask in the community’s gratitude and applause. Isang bagsak, clap!
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