Forget Guinness

I HATE being a party-pooper but our communities’ acquired fixation over landing a line or two at Guinness World Records for the “longest…most…biggest, etc” title is getting out of hand.

Sure, earning a Guinness title can mean something to the community but truthfully, it’s just a very small feather on the community’s cap. The Guinness book is updated by the minute so if anyone upstages or surpasses your “record”, yours is promptly erased. It is just a line acknowledging the achievement or feat, and it is only good until it lasts (when the record is broken by another).

Then you wonder what was all that you’ve done all about, for what end, and at what costs? P500k – P1M for a line that no one really notices except the record holder?

It should be pointed out that the Guinness does not advertise its listings so to say that a Guinness listing puts one in the world map of tourism is so untrue. So seriously, let’s not get overboard with a Guinness title.

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TOWN’S TRIVIA ON RECORD. I am not saying that outstanding and remarkable “records” in Guinness are not important and neither am I belittling efforts at getting a community united in action for one purpose. In fact, these are very, very important.  These are so important that I hasten to suggest to forget about Guinness Records and instead establish our local official “records” exclusive to the communities for generations and tourists to know and remember.

In brief, I am suggesting that we start recording the interesting and colorful trivia in our communities over the decades. Each town and city in the province must start a “Book of Trivia” that acknowledges outstanding feats and accomplishments by individuals, groups and barangays in their respective towns. The various trivia will make for interesting read of the town’s history at anytime by this and future generations.

The presence of the “book” must be made official by establishing it through an ordinance, defining its purpose, how entries should be validated and entered into the records, who validates, etc.  I suggest one provision that sets no limitation on categories, i.e., “best in ___,” “highest___”, “most outstanding in __,”  “fastest in__”etc.,   but any new category  should be added once validated by a designated group.  The dates are important since any achievement should not and never be erased from the record (unlike in Guinness). 

The community’s trivia book should be exclusively about life in the community, not limited to politics or economic events. The Guinness Book can provide the broad strokes.

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INTERESTING HISTORY. The presence of such a registry will give more reason for local governments to create more activities during their town fiestas. More fun contests of any kind can be organized during fiestas.

The book can begin recording accomplishments retroactively listing achievers and winners of some important contests in the past. For instance, in Dagupan, it should list Mayor Benjamin S. Lim as the originator of the Bangus Festival in 2002.  It should include a list of past Miss. Dagupan since pre-WWII era, past and future winners of the biggest bangus contests, list of war veterans since Spanish war. Mayor Belen Fernandez as the first elected lady mayor (and vice mayor) in the city.  Dates of establishment of various universities and colleges, commercial banks,  civic, religious and professional clubs, etc. should be established as well.

The registry “book” should be on display at the town hall and included in the official website of the town/city.  The listing of one name can make generations of a family proud year after year!

Collectively, we will have a colorful and interesting history of Pangasinan, don’t you agree?

But thousands of precious funds for a temporary listing in Guinness?  Hmmm. Think again.

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UNSETTLED.  It’s past the month of February and the deadline for payment of business taxes in Dagupan City has passed. And still the fate of Citystate Savings Bank’s Dagupan branch remains unsettled. 

It certainly looks like neither the city government nor the bank is keen on settling it one way or the other. As I see it, it will remain in limbo until either one secures a court order.

At this point, we will leave the issue as is, where is, and leave the two to defend and justify their respective positions given whatever consequences that may befall either or both for failing to resolve this unprecedented issue in governance.

Where we are today is: 1) The bank is still operating without business and mayor’s permit 2) The city government refuses to grant a mayor’s and business permit precisely because it cannot present a building permit to support its application. 3) The city engineer’s office refuses to issue a building permit to the bank pending resolution of the court case re sale of MC Adore to Amb. ALC Holding and Management Corp. 4) The city government remains deprived of business taxes due from the bank’s past year operations. 5) The Dagupan Electric Corp has not terminated the contract of the city government for the electric meter in spite of the order of the city government.  6) The electric meter continues to be used by the bank without authorization from the city government.  7) The bank continues to pay for its consumption using the city hall’s meter and Decorp is reportedly accepting the payments.  8) Decorp is effectively allowing use of an electric meter by the bank without being required to submit a business permit. 9). The Dagupan sanggunian has not called for an inquiry on the status of the bank and Decorp.

Let’s see where today’s status leads us in 6 months when we revisit the issue.

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EQUAL TIME FOR PANGASINAN. Now that the ABS-CBN issued a more “sincere” apology, the provincial government (hopefully with the help of the network) will redouble its efforts to promote the province as a major tourist destination in the country.

This cannot be done solely by drumbeating through press releases.  It should ask ABS-CBN to help project the province’s image, specifically to do at least a 7-minute  TV feature on Pangasinan’s tourism potential  that should be aired next month.

It’s about asking for equal time to correct the erroneous report. I believe ABS-CBN’s news execs would find this request reasonable.

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MAYBELEYN, PCL PREXY. We join the city in congratulating Councilor Maybelyn Fernandez for finally winning the coveted presidency of the Philippine Councilors League.

Her capacity to lead was never doubted as she had amply demonstrated her capacity in her previous term as majority floor leader. She is sharp and articulate.

I only hope that with her hands full as the new steward for the national group of councilors, she will find it in herself to voluntarily step down as majority floor leader in order to allow another colleague the chance to lead in effectively supporting the agenda of the Fernandez administration. Her continued absence as majority floor leader is not doing justice to the mandate given her by Dagupeños.

I sincerely wish Councilor Maybelyn a successful and impressive term.  

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