Punchline
Just cause for the city
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I am personally gratified that the Dagupan City Council acted prudently and slashed the city annual budget as proposed by the Lim administration. The budget as passed was clearly a vote against unabated corruption in the city hall and a vote for transparency and accountability on the part of the executive.
But, of course, Mayor Benjie Lim who’s still obviously living in his own little trapo world, appears to be in constant denial about his precarious position as mayor after being exposed for his recent anomalous transactions and official acts in office. The poor guy is the only person in the city who insists that the commercial competition between him (his Magic Mall chain) and VM Belen Fernandez (her CSI Mall chain) is what the political tug-of-war of sorts in the city is all about. Hence, the combative tone of Mr. Lim in his press releases is indicative of how far divorced he is from the realities in the city.
I, therefore, found his last stand in the budget issue demanding that the expected override of his expected veto be backed by a “just cause” simply ironic if not outright comical! Instead of being conciliatory as he faces certain defeat in his desperate battle for a bloated budget, he’s wont to believe that he is still the only good guy fighting for the Dagupenos. Gosh, he was just exposed for illegally disbursing calamity funds for political purposes and directing the purchase of overpriced basic commodities for a feeding program after he resorted to all forms of tricks to conceal all the hanky-panky in the city hall, he now has the temerity and the gall to demand “just cause”! Hello??
Truly amazing this Mr. Lim. On reading his press release, I was beginning to be reminded of Adolf Hitler, the man who felt no remorse in attempting to eliminate a race. How can a man feel no remorse about all the anomalies in his office yet insists he is righteous to a fault? Is he for real?
Mr. Lim even boasted mightily of effectively collecting more taxes from Dagupenos each time, particularly this year and used it as a justification to be given the largesse to spend them all as he sees fit. But through it all, he says nothing about how much of the city’s coffers have already been diverted to graft under his stewardship. Worse, beyond the touted feeding program from which private pockets have already been lined with illegal profits, he has nothing new to serve Dagupenos. He has not even offered any plan for the dilapidated McAdore Hotel that his administration bought for P50 million some 7 years ago. He has not offered to explain why the city government does not have a title to the 31-hectare land in San Jacinto that he made the city buy for P16 million instead of P7 million. And he tells Dagupenos with a straight face that he must spend all the revenues without being accountable.
Enough Mr. Lim. Thank God for the God-fearing members of the majority in the city council, your days of happy whimsical dipping into the public funds are numbered.
You have already been told. Read between the lines of the budget message approved by the city council. It reads: “Moderate your greed, Mr. Lim…time to serve Dagupan honestly and prudently. Tama na yong kita sa Barangay Awai, overpriced streetlights, dredging machine, noodles, rice, sugar and construction of the Malimgas Market. You already had a good deal out of the purchase of the dilapidated McAdore Hotel at the expense of the city. Tama na, Mayor.”
That’s the best just cause for the city.
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I have no doubt Dagupenos would surely support a city council’s positive response to Mr. Lim’s appeal for a reconsideration of his budget but only if he finally can bring himself to the sanggunian to explain and describe city hall’s plans and projects, how he managed the calamity fund, etc. The fact that he said he would do so this month but didn’t, only shows Mr. Lim’s statements outside of the sanggunian can’t really be trusted.
Then the department heads whose budgets were slashed must present themselves to defend their budgets if only to prove that they had a hand in preparing their respective department’s budgets, not a motley group of racketeers.
Mr. Mata himself should also be made accountable, as chairman of the bids and awards committee, for the anomalous purchases for the bandied feeding program.
A mere “emotional pa-effect” appeal via media purporting to be the aggrieved party for the people, without making himself accountable just wont cut it anymore. It shouldn’t. If the council makes the deadly mistake of playing into Mr. Lim’s fake “emotional” appeal, then the councilors will only have themselves to blame if more overpricing deals and illegal money-making ventures surface after this.
The city council has this rare opportunity to exact true public service from the occupants of the city hall, so I hope the councilors will not bungle this God-given opportunity by giving in to trapoism on mere Mr. Lim’s cajoling.
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COLLATERAL VICTIM? Mr. Lim’s amoral way of governing has already claimed a prime victim in the person of City Administrator Vlad Mata.
Mr. Mata, once a truly promising talent in local politics, a former would-be shoo-in for mayor for his perceived idealism, already cuts a pathetic figure in the city. He can no longer be believed no matter how hard he portrays Mr. Lim as a do-gooder since learned to speak with a forked tongue for his boss. He now projects an image of deception, very much like in the image of the discredited army generals who lied, cheated and stole from what was due our ill-equipped and underpaid soldiers, and now desperately try to cover their tracks in the senate hearings.
Thank God, the sinister tactics he applied in a vain attempt to pull the wool over the councilors eyes during the budget deliberations were not lost to the councilors.
Having seen what he was willing to do contra-Dagupenos, it’s already hard to believe that he is the innocent collateral damage in the mayor’s fiction-like politics.
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THE WOMEN VS. MEN, VOTED 4-2. If the climactic vote in the House of Representatives on the justice committee’s report endorsing the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez were to be evaluated on the basis of how Pangasinan’s representatives voted, it would have appeared that lines were drawn by gender, albeit inversely.
The ombudsman being a woman, one would have easily concluded that the province’s four feisty congresswomen would have voted in the negative to support the embattled constitutional officer, but they didn’t.
On the contrary, Third District Rep. Rachel Arenas, Fourth District Rep. Gina de Venecia, Fifth District Rep. Kimi Cojunagco and Sixth District Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, cast their votes with the majority, all voted with a resounding “Yes” contra Gutierrez.
They obviously had no sympathy for their “kabaro”
On the other hand, the men, Rep. Jesus Celeste of the First District and Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil of the Second District, obviously liked the lady Ombudsman’ cause and voted against the committee report.
What did the men possibly see in the woman that the rest of the women didn’t see? Or rather, what did the women know about Gutierrez that the men didn’t believe in?
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STALKING THE BMs. Here’s a piece of good news for Pangasinenses who feel aggrieved and exploited by the “Lucky Bunch” (provincial board members) after being told by the latter to pay 300% more in taxes this year while the board embers feel justified in receiving a brand new Ford SUV from the provincial government.
A number of special people have volunteered to stalk and expose the board members as they gallivant in their brand new SUVs meant “for official use only”. The pictures should make a good case before the Ombudsman.
We’ll post their SUVs’ plate numbers here soon as we get them so don’t despair. You may get even yet.
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