Punchline
Ombudsman will investigate BSL deals
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
FINALLY it can be told. The Ombudsman will soon be knocking at the doors of the city hall to start its investigation of reported anomalies.
There are now two cases (one by an anonymous complainant and the other by Mr. Leo Angeles) filed with the Ombudsman against Dagupan Mayor Benjie Lim et al.
While both complaints cited the Awai land deal scam, the anonymous complaint listed the purchases of overpriced food items for the children’s feeding program, the illegal distribution of calamity funds without declaration of a state of calamity, the anomalous conversion of Magsaysay Park into a restaurant mall and awarding of contract to Metrostate Realty Corp.
To better impress upon the Ombudsman on the predilection of the Lim administration to commit graft with impunity, more complaints should be filed even on the same issues. There is still the unresolved status of the Daongan ed Dawel.
Thank God, Dagupeños are finally fighting to free their city from the stranglehold of grafters, corrupt officials and their cronies.
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BROTHERLY ADVICE. The first attempt of the new majority of onor-onors in the city council to enact an ordinance gave away their true colors and character – ignorant and arrogant.
What appeared to me was a Grade 1 type of ordinance, the dress code for tricycle drivers, being proposed by the onor-onors, unwittingly exposed not only their stark ignorance but their arrogance.
My relative Onor-onor Red Erfe-Mejia dared to invoke a law that he did not understand, specifically, the exclusive authority of the Land Transportation Office and limitations expressed under the local government code. Then he had the temerity to lie to the council that a good majority of the council was present in the committee hearing, when the records show his compatriots were not even in the building. It was not difficult to discern what he was up to – his equally ignorant peers would not dare contradict him. But he forgot about the records that can’t lie. That’s sheer arrogance. Curiously, not one of his P1.5M buddies came to his rescue.
Here’s a brotherly advice, from a relative to another – Red, study and review your subject before allowing yourself to be used by others because you might find yourself holding the short end of the stick, completely abandoned to fend for yourself looking stupid.
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WHAT BIG FISH? Barangay kapitan Pedro Gonzales was finally pushed to a corner to act on the thriving illegal drug trade in his barangay, Bonuan Binloc. Finally, he purportedly tipped off the police on a shabu den near his house. Yes, finally! One can only wonder what took him so long!
For too long, the Dagupan city police and the city mayor have avoided naming Mr. Gonzales, a close Lim-political ally, as the central figure in the shabu industry in his barangay. His barangaymates have long been complaining about the “hands-off” policy of the kapitan, a policy that coddles the druglords.
The suspect whom Mr. Gonzales had arrested was in fact not the “big fish” that the city hall painted him to be. The barangay residents snicker at the claim of the city hall. The arrested suspect is only one of the many drug dealers openly operating in their community, and certainly not a drug lord.
The “big fish” are still free doing their business victimizing families in the province.
Mr. Gonzales, your barangaymates are challenging you to stop the proliferation of shabu trading in your area once and for all. (The same residents challenge Mayor Lim to arrest all the druglords in their community they believe are known to their kapitan and the police– and possibly city hall).
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P50 M MADNESS. Mayor Lim is adamant about constructing a grossly overpriced (P50 M!) child and maternal care hospital before the year ends…to be more precise, before the campaign period starts.
The project is not only peppered with opportunities for corruption but is anti-education! Instead of committing more support for the salaries of teachers, more classrooms, more computers, Mr. Lim wants to launch the project at the expense of the children studying at the Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School whose studies will be unduly disrupted by their relocation!
The private and public education sector that found reason to join the mayor in a memorandum signing supporting his campaign vs. illegal drugs should find reason as well to close ranks and oppose the relocation of the school, particularly at this time when resources are scarce for the education of the city’s children.
They must send a resolution to the DepEd and the city council expressing their opposition to the relocation of the school, and instead appeal for more classrooms and higher salaries for public school teachers.
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Here’s a ridiculous play of the Dagupan City government in shoring support for its new P50 M corruption-ridden hospital project.
Mayor Lim recently met with the Federation of Senior Citizen’s Association of the Philippines (FOSCAP), Pangasinan chapter. He reportedly told his excited audience – “What is important [is the] access of the senior citizens to our chemical laboratories so that even twice a year our senior citizens will be given privilege of free checkup,” Lim reportedly said.
Of course, I imagine my fellow SCs clapping enthusiastically for the expression of support by the mayor.
On instinct, I would have lauded the same, being a senior citizen myself. Then it dawned on me – I don’t know how a pediatrician and an OB gynecologist in a child and maternal care hospital can be of any help to senior citizens. Free pregnancy testing for senior ladies? Free child psychological consultation, therapy and testing for guys and gals with thinning hairs and bulging waistlines?
The mayor would have sounded more sincere with his empty gesture if he had promised my fellow seniors the UNLI(mited) use of the 24 beds for their afternoon naps anytime. Leave it to the mayor to make you feel important with empty gestures.
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CHEAP STUNTS. It certainly looks like our news and column items about irregularities being committed by the Benjie Lim administration in Dagupan are hitting the bull’s eye. Another malicious rumor is being peddled by his paid hacks in the local media.
I recall Mr. Lim’s description of me, describing me as “tanga”, when he could not explain himself creditably on his surprise move to sell the MC Adore building.
Then, recently Mr. Lim and the Judas 9 began peddling a laughable lie when their denials about the P1.5 M payoffs would not be believed and their attempt to muzzle the vice mayor could not be justified. This time, they decided to discredit The PUNCH by attributing our reports to the “fact” that Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez is already a part-owner of the PUNCH, having bought P3M worth of shares, a “fact” they said explains The PUNCH’s unfavorable reporting of Mr. Lim’s activities. Ha-ha!
I feel bad for Mr. Lim, his paid hacks and the Judas 9 as well.
They have to make their tale credible, and the only way is not to make me appear cheap like them. The “P3 M” is still a cheap shot but I can live with that, but they made it incredible by naming a politician as a stockholder! Nobody outside of our family circle has ever come close to owning a share. It is precisely this closed ownership that has made The PUNCH what it is today – independent and professional.
Frankly, I’m flattered by all the undeserved attention from Mr. Lim and the contemptible bunch of media-prostis who are predisposed to webbing lies and name-calling. But no matter how hard they try, all their despicable stunts can never sidestep the ugly truths about the city hall occupants.
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