Punchline
Logical explanations
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
“LET us prevent it (crimes), but if we cannot, then let us solve it. Otherwise, if we can’t solve it, there must be a logical explanation!”
These were the words of Guv Spines when he presided over the last meeting of the Pangasinan Provincial Peace and Order Council, a day before Urbiztondo Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr. was shot mercilessly.
That is now the Damocles sword hanging over Police Provincial Director Sterling Blanco’s head!
Without assuming to know more about police work than our experts including Guv Spines, there is only one logical explanation that I can surmise given the continued failure of our police and other law enforcers to fully solve crimes – poor intelligence work!
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We cannot begrudge Mr. Blanco’s rosy view of the PPO’s performance citing the number of arrests and cases filed for indeed, every arrest and filing of a case is good news.
However, this perspective is not reassuring if the communities continue to live in an atmosphere of fear and insecurity. The seemingly undeterred and easy disposal of targets by criminals operating with such impunity are enough to make everyone feel that there is a breakdown of peace and order in the province, that nobody is in charge.
In sum, the criminals in our midst obviously have no fear whatsoever of our law enforcers here, much less care about the capacity of the police to stop them. No mastermind has ever been arrested even for kills made by hitmen riding in tandem. Hence, it is not difficult to believe that the situation enables hitmen to give the guarantee to a would-be customer that his/her identity as mastermind will never be known. Such a guarantee emboldens many affluent businessmen and politicians with criminal agenda to pursue their plans using HFH (hitmen-for-hire) with no second thoughts.
Indeed, how is it possible that masterminds of many murders committed in the province continue to elude arrest?
That is the next question that I’d like to hear from Guv Spines! In people’s mind, there can be no logical explanation to that except incompetence or prevalence of hush money.
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MOLINA’S UNTOUCHABLES. There goes Dagupan City Agriculturist Emma Molina again standing up for anything but the law… and Balon Dagupan!
I was not totally surprised to learn that she is leaving three illegal fish pens untouchable right under the very nose of Mayor Belen Fernandez. I am more surprised that no one has stepped in to stop her with her ridiculous logic.
It would appear that Ms. Molina is exploiting Mayor Belen’s known aversion to court cases just as she had done the first time she succeeded in stopping the mayor from proceeding with the demolition of some 60 fish pens with that preposterous claim of ownership of parts of the river.
Meanwhile the pollution of the city’s rivers continue.
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WHAT DEADLINE? When former Mayor BSL allowed more than 400 fish pens to operate in clear violation of the city’s ordinance, not a pipsqueak came from her. When Mayor Belen was confronted with it, for still some inexplicable reason, the same outlandish “claim” was still upheld when even a failing first year law student can point out that any claim of ownership over parts of the river has no legal basis!
Consequently, when Mayor Belen announced her pledge to dismantle all fish pens as early as August 2013, and never materialized, Ms. Molina’s favorites were spared. It is now 10 months since Mayor Belen gave the “final” deadline, and still 3 fish pens of the “favorites” remain untouchable!
And as one might have expected, Ms. Molina now invokes a possible court suit if the dismantling of the illegal fish pens is continued while a supposed court litigation between private parties over the claimed part of the river is ongoing. What gobbledygook and she is getting away with it, again!
The correct perspective should have been, to sue both contending parties to court if both refuse to obey the law. Since when did a private dispute begin to supersede and take precedence over the enforcement of the law? Only in Dagupan City?
It makes me wonder, whether City Legal Officer George Mejia, a former judge, shares her view.
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DATIN DAGUPAN? Ms. Molina’s attempt to justify her inaction today by acknowledging that the fish pens will eventually be dismantled by the river dredging operations anyway exposed her true motive. Her bizarre logic belies her fear that the city will be embroiled in a legal suit if the pens are dismantled. What appears today is an attempt to buy more time for the owners of the three illegal fish pens to complete their harvest and possibly to allow them to re-stock if given the opportunity to redirect the dredging operations to another area. If that is not a protection racket, I don’t know what is.
Why are Ms. Molina’s whims being tolerated? Are we still in Datin Dagupan mode? She is embarrassing Mayor Belen.
I can only wonder for how much, and for whom this time?
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LIBEL HEARING. Last June 11 was the scheduled arraignment day for eight Punch staff, including myself, for the libel case filed by Mr. Antonio Cabangon Chua’s Citystate Savings Bank before the regional trial court in Pasig City.
No lawyer for Citystate Savings Bank appeared at the court even to simply acknowledge the fact it had filed the case in spite of an earlier decision by a prosecutor dismissing the complaint. It would appear by the bank’s absence that the case was indeed filed just to harass The PUNCH, making the respondent staffers spend and make the unnecessary trips from Dagupan to Pasig City for the case.
But the staff that came were in high spirits and took the trip as an occasion to make a side trip to SM Aura in Taguig. On our return to Dagupan that evening, no one gave the frustrating abbreviated court hearing any thought. Instead the staff was unanimous in the thought: “Masarap palang ma-libel!” (Referring to the opportunity presented to do some shopping in Metro Manila).
But levity aside, we await in earnest how the honorable Pasig judge will rule on our motion for judicial review. We found it odd that a resolution dismissing Citystate’s complaint, affirmed by the city prosecutor, can be overruled by a subsequent resolution sustaining the complaint affirmed merely by the deputy city prosecutor. (I can understand why Mr. Cabangon Chua didn’t find that odd, and I think I am beginning to know him better).
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NO RESPECT FOR POSO. This corner’s attention has been called by a downtown businessman three weeks ago about the inconsistency in the enforcement of traffic rules in Dagupan City, particularly in the implementation of “loading and unloading” in newly designated areas. Worse, the “No parking” rule in those areas is totally ignored.
I made my own validation and true enough, I saw how the rules were being flouted right under the very noses of tolerant traffic enforcers of the Public Order and Safety Office under the direction of the city mayor’s office.
If rules cannot be enforced, throw them out, or if enforcers cannot do their jobs, ship them out, but either way there must be a solution to preserve the authority of government and maintain respect for our enforcers.
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