Punchline
Guv Spines stopped jueteng
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
HOLD your breath but the campaign against jueteng in the province appears to be holding. The cynic in me randomly checked with sources if, indeed, jueteng has found greener pastures in other provinces and the responses I got were the same – a nonchalant casual “yes” like it was the normal thing to expect. Wow!
So there it is. The once touted “irreversible” and “unstoppable” jueteng in Pangasinan is now nothing but a fairy tale. Perhaps not for long, but this is the longest period of absence I have seen since I started to organize demonstrations against it in the 70s. It can no longer be said at anytime in the future that jueteng cannot be stopped. It can!
For a long time, I doubted if Guv Spines had it in him to do the impossible – to stop jueteng. After all he was tagged as one of the jueteng lords in the province in past Congress hearings. Today, I am happy to be proved wrong in my suspicions about him. He has it in himself to do what is right and to right the wrong. His legacy is growing leaps and bounds. Without jueteng, it can be said there is less corruption in Espino’s administration. The monthly payola for mayors, police chiefs, board members, councilors and media is now a thing of the past.
Police PD Resueto Ricaforte, who appeared initially to be tentative about the jueteng campaign has also proven his own set of detractors wrong and proved his professionalism to all and sundry. Mr. Ricaforte has certainly earned a lot of respect (including mine) for his unqualified determination to make sure his order against jueteng sticks. I only pray he will be just as successful in the campaign against the guns-for-hire operating in the province in the days ahead.
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PGMA IS WRONG MODEL. The punto-por-punto reaction of Dagupan Vice Mayor Fernandez to City Mayor Benjie Lim’s allegations of inaction and laziness on the part of the city’s Sangguniang Panglunsod is candid and points to the transparent manner she holds fort as presiding officer. (See VM Fernandez’s statement in this issue).
As she reasonably points out, it is only Mayor Benjie’s adamant refusal to make department heads accountable to the city council as well that stands in the way of the early passage of the 2011 budget. Yet since the law mandates that it is the sangguian that has the sole power over the purse, and the mayor is accountable to the council, I don’t see how Mayor Benjie can win public support in this issue.
The good mayor should be reminded that while his model, President Gloria Arroyo, might have gotten away with her gag order to her cabinet secretaries, preventing the latter from attending investigations in Congress in aid of legislation, she could not prevent her department heads from attending budget hearings in both House of Representatives and Senate. President Arroyo knew better than to risk operating on a reenacted budget continuously, which was the only predictable outcome of a boycotted budget hearing. She tried to muscle her way through but failed because her own allies in Congress knew she could not have it her way, not in the annual budget anyway because it’s simply indefensible in both legal aspect and in the bar of public opinion.
If power play is what Mayor Benjie wants to dwell on, then he should work on earning votes for his causes inside SP instead of merely lashing out at the whole institution itself. The reality for him is that the majority is not with him this time unlike when he first won as mayor and he had everyone under his thumb including some of whom are now with the new majority today.
As VM Belen correctly pointed out, the city council should stop being a party to ill-advised projects that led to nowhere citing how the city lost millions when Mayor Benjie (circa 2001-2007) made the city pay for the sanitary landfill that never was, acquire the old Mc Adore Hotel only to be a dirty white elephant today, purchase a brand new dredging machine that was not meant to last, etc.
Curiously, Mayor Benjie has not mentioned anything to make amends for these failed costly projects but now finds it convenient to find fault in a city council that refuses to be his rubber stamp of old.
Come on, Mr. Mayor…you have been given a second chance to redeem yourself and claim the legacy as “the greatest mayor the city ever had”. I note that many of your projects today are worthy of public support but your trapo politics stink.
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ZERO CASUALTY IN THE FUTURE. The conduct of the Pogo Grande traditional firecracker show may just provide the answer to endless cases of injuries every New Year celebration.
Imagine if all towns can pass legislation that, henceforth, the town plaza shall be the only venue for exploding firecrackers on New Year’s Eve. With the stroke of a pen, towns can achieve zero-casualty every year since there will be a high awareness for safety precautions. In addition, all support systems, i.e., screening of dangerous and banned firecrackers can be done, a medical team and an ambulance can be present to immediately attend to injuries, etc. can be instituted while making it easier for barangay tanods and the police to monitor violations.
The ultimate solution was already found in Davao City. Then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has long banned the sale and lighting of firecrackers of any kind before, during and after New Year and the law stands under his daughter, Sara, the first lady mayor of the city. (I am not sure if that included fireworks display). The Davaoenos may have quite an unusual New year’s eve but everyone is assured no family will grieve or suffer the pain of seeing a member of the family losing a set of fingers, get blinded, or get scarred on the face, arms and legs for life.
As the Dutertes have demonstrated, even a popular tradition can be changed for public good, but it can be done only with political will.
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UNPUBLISHED WWII PICS. I am in touch with Mr. John Kelly of Michigan who has been kind enough to share with PUNCH readers his collection of World War II pictures taken in the Philippines. Like the photos taken by Charles DeMay, a WWII vet, I have not seen Mr. Kelly’s collection published anywhere.
Unfortunately, wee can only afford to publish one photo due to space constraints but we are featuring his submitted full collection in our Online version (http://punch.dagupan.com) in a slide presentation for our readers’ appreciation.
With Mr. Kelly’s permission, the newly created Pangasinan Historical and Cultural and Historical Commission should add his collection to its database. Our thanks to Rechel Kelly too, a San Fabian resident, for facilitating the delivery of the collection set for our perusal.
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