Punchline
Embarrassment
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE Citystate-Decorp-City Hall imbroglio rages on.
It’s been almost 20 days since Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez ordered the Dagupan Electric Corp (Decorp) to terminate the service contract for the electric meter lodged at the MC Adore hotel building, and as some had predicted, Decorp will likely continue to ignore her order.
And, there is no indication at all that Decorp will at least be courteous enough to comply wit the mayor’s order within the week. My hunch is, it will be there until Decorp has found a legit way to provide power to Citystate Savings Bank, the bank owned by Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua.
It boggles many minds how and why Decorp would rather risk the wrath of the city government than lose income by believing it can easily ignore the mayor of the city, even in her capacity representing its biggest customer just to continue earning from the meter at the expense of the city government.
Then there is the Citystate Bank risking an adverse report to its Singapore partner that their bank is in the middle of a legal tussle with the local government. Its problems become more complicate with each week that passes. The questions uppermost in many local businessmen’s minds is: Will Citystate again fail to pay its business tax for another year? And if it fails to do so, will it still opt to defy the city’s ordinances for another year? By the end of this month, the city will know if the bank has again failed to pay its business taxes, for the 2nd time).
Alas, until the issue is resolved whichever way, their continued defiance can only result in their embarrassment in the community as corporate citizens. On the other hand, Mayor Belen’s authority is being challenged, in her face.
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MR. SPOKESMAN. Speaking of embarrassment, let me digress a bit for the sake of Mr. Cabangon Chua this once.
A Mr. Allan Sison styles himself as the official spokesman of Mr. Cabangon Chua. I don’t usually waste my time reacting to sheer hot air but I was handed a recording of his recent tirade against an “Ermin Garcia Jr.” all because his boss is mentioned in our reports. This time I will make an exception to give his tales some importance. But before anything else, I do want to thank him for unwittingly promoting our cause in his radio program at least even among his limited listeners.
Nothing wrong with sucking up to the boss for a chance to earn a fat raise, except that his ignorance of basic facts and lack of professional facility only serve to make his boss look pathetically ignorant, too. In my book, it’s a great disservice to someone who was once an ambassador.
Here’s one. He delighted in claiming that Mr. Cabangon Chua listens to his advice on how to deal with the media, particularly The PUNCH.
Mr. Spokesman said he understood what sub-judicie means. He claimed this corner is guilty of it because I labeled Mr. Cabagon Chua’s ownership of the MC Adore as “illegal” while a case on it is pending before the court. Duh? That’s his claim, certainly not mine. I recognize that there was indeed a public bidding and his boss won the bid. Nothing illegal there, is there? We described the bidding, not his acquisition, initially as illegal because it lacked the publication requirement. This corner eventually described the acquisition as tainted, taking off from the decision of Judge Samadan who penned the decision – that the sale of MC Adore “was done in indecent haste. ” There is also the fact that the starting bid price that the Lim administration offered was grossly disadvantageous to the city. The word is “tainted,” not illegal! There’s a whale of difference there. Thesaurus for the guy, please!
Clearly, Mr. Spokesman is already confused about his facts in discussing the separate problems of Mr. Cabangon Chua’s MC Adore and Citystate. The Citystate, as far as the city government is concerned, is operating illegally because it operated and continues to operate without securing a building permit, worse it did not have a business permit. We never cited MC Adore as the defaulting establishment but Citystate, yes. (Check your facts, Mr. Spokesman).
Here is an even funnier account. Mr. Spokesman insisted that our irresponsibility as a journalist became evident when we supposedly published an “erratum” over the claim of Mayor Belen Fernandez that our headline did not quote her correctly. I think Mr. Spokesman’s zero experience in journalism missed out terribly on something very basic. For his education in Journalism 101, what I did was to give way to the mayor’s impression of the headline – that she did not merely ask for the recall of the meter but to “terminate the meter”. In journalism, that’s called recognizing “the right of reply” of news subjects. Did we commit an error in fact? No. An “erratum” is usually done to correct an inadvertent error in fact that was published. Did we publish an “erratum”? No. In his dream, perhaps. I wonder how he (and Mr. Cabangon Chua, too?) came to the conclusion that we published an “erratum.” Tsk-tsk.
But here is a more serious implication of his bold claim that he and his boss are like-minded.
Mr. Spokesman relishes firing away with his crass, juvenile language. He reportedly often describes his news subjects (including this columnist) as gago and tarantado! Is that how he thinks Mr. Cabangon Chua speaks and regards people, particularly independent journalists? I seriously doubt that. If Mr. Spokesman wishes to sound and talk like Mr. Cabangon Chua, he can learn a thing or two from his boss’ own dogma – “Diplomatic Leadership Works.” Like-minded? He insults his boss.
The funniest. Mr. Spokesman averred I should apologize to his boss if I want the libel case withdrawn. Duh! First of all, I have not asked anyone (particularly him) to intercede and ask Mr. Cabangon Chua to withdraw the libel case he filed. I have said I will fight the libel case all the way because it is a press freedom issue and it stays that way. I have been sued 5 times, including one from then President Erap, and I never had to ask anyone to intercede for settlement in any of these, and I am not about to start that disgraceful habit now, admitting to irresponsibility. But if there’s someone who should apologize to Mr. Cabangon Chua, it should be Mr. Spokesman himself for projecting his boss in a most embarrassing and demeaning manner.
Finally, he bragged and warned that The PUNCH can never outdo him in his tirade against us because he has a radio program 7 days a week while our newspaper is only published weekly. Gee, I can’t blame him if he thinks he needs at least 7 days a week to discredit our news reports and commentaries. Try 8 days a week!
Poor Mr. Cabangon Chua. Is Mr. Sison all he’s got? Enough said. Change the radio channel.
* * * * *
NPA AT THE SP. The sanggunian panglunsod of Dagupan City council again failed to hold its regular session last week.
To the credit of the minority, Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia, the minority floor leader was present for the roll call.
Notably missing for weeks and months now was Majority floor leader Maybelyn Fernandez. She has not been around to lead the majority in pushing for the administration’s agenda since she got elected. In fact, records show she was never around for her crucial vote for Mayor Belen’s pet bills.
If Ms. Fernandez is much too busy campaigning to become president of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) and has no time for the city, then she owes it to the city that she resigns her post as majority floor leader tomorrow. After all, it was the city that made it possible for her to gun for the PCL’s top post.
Right now, she is a non-performing asset (NPA) for the city.
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